After Greenpeace licence goof up, MHA orders probe

New Delhi: The Union home ministry cancelled the FCRA licence of Greenpeace India and two NGOs run by activist Teesta Setalvad on Wednesday, almost three months after it “inadvertently” renewed its registration for a period of five more years.

A ministry official said the renewal of FCRA licence of Greenpeace India, Teesta’s NGOs Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace stands cancelled with immediate effect.

The home ministry has also asked the Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERTI) to ascertain if the software system had been hacked, as there have been several cases in the past few months of FCRA licences of some NGOs under government scrutiny getting renewed automatically.

Online generated orders for renewing the FCRA licence of Greenpeace India, Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace stand “null and void”, and the licences to these NGOs stand cancelled, an official said. They cannot receive foreign funds, the official added. The ministry also ordered a review of the recent renewal of FCRA registration of 13,000 NGOs to look into the possible goof-ups of existing rules.

The ministry has already directed that applications of all “red-flagged NGOs” will have to be vetted by joint-secretary-level officer handling the ministry’s foreigners division.

While the licence of Greenpeace India and Sabrang Trust were cancelled by the government in the past, Citizens for Justice and Peace was put in prior permission category, thus preventing it from receiving foreign funds without government permission.