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The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has reportedly cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of the parent entity of the non-profit Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), which monitors and critiques the role of domestic and international financial institutions and their impact on development, human rights and the environment, among other areas.
The cancellation of FCRA registration of CFA comes days after it highlighted in a report how additional projects sanctioned in a Special Economic Zone operated by the Adani Group in the Kutch region of Gujarat “will compound environmental hazards and increase the health risks for the people while further polluting the environment and accelerating degradation of the ecology.”
Joe Athialy, CFA Executive Director, told The Hindu that they were yet to receive the orders cancelling the FCRA registration of CACIM (India Institute for Critical Action Centre in Movement), but they had been informed online.
Athialy said they have been the reason for cancellation was due to incorrect filings of returns for financial years 2018 and 2019, adding that "this may just be an excuse".
“We have been told that the cancellation is due to the incorrect filings [of return] of financial years 2018 and 2019. This may be just an excuse, as they had all the years to ask us to rectify the mistakes. We certainly believe that the work we did has contributed to this action,” The Hindu quoted Athialy as saying.
He said the government wanted to restrain the organisations that were critical of its work.
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“We are not going to get bogged down by such actions. We will continue our work. We recognise that the government wanted to throttle our work. We will find innovative ways to carry forward our work, which includes domestic donations. There is a life beyond FCRA,” he said.
