On July 26, the Ministry of Home Affairs shared in Lok Sabha during Question Hour that between 2019 and 2021, 1811 FCRA licenses were cancelled while 783 NGOs were denied renewal for the same.
Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai was answering the questions asked by Indian Union Muslim League’s leader ET Mohammed Basheer regarding the cancellation and denial of FCRA licenses from 2019 to 2021. Basheer had asked about the total number of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act (FCRA) registrations cancelled and denied renewal, and had also asked for state-wise data. He also asked the ministry if a show cause notice was issued by the government to the concerned institution to explain their stand or not.
Replying to Basheer, Rai said that during the three years that were 2019, 2020, and 2021, registration certificates of 1811 associations were cancelled under the provisions of the Foreign contribution Regulation Act, 2010 (FCRA 2010). He further added that all the associations were provided with the reasonable opportunity of being heard as per the terms of Section 14(2) of FCRA 2010. Furthermore, 783 applications for the renewal of the FCRA licenses were rejected during the same period.
As per the data provided by MHA, the maximum number of NGOs that lost their FCRA licenses were from Tamil Nadu. 218 licenses were cancelled in three years in the state. In Madhya Pradesh, 206 licenses were cancelled, followed by 193 in West Bengal, 168 in Andhra Pradesh, 122 in Bihar, 115 in Uttar Pradesh, and 109 in Odisha.
Speaking about denial of renewal, MHA informed that the maximum number of NGOs that were denied renewal were from Maharashtra, and the number stood at 110.
84 associations in Andhra Pradesh, 66 in Tamil Nadu, 65 in West Bengal, 59 in Uttar Pradesh, and 57 associations in Karnataka were denied renewal.
