With suspicion growing that non-governmental organisations might be fueling recent agitations in the country, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday launched an “Online Analytical Tool” to monitor flow and utilisation of authorised foreign contributions received by various organisations.
Approximately 25,000 active organisations registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, received foreign currencies worth Rs 18,065 crore to execute various social, cultural, economic, educational and religious activities during the financial year 2016-17. Of them, organisations registered in the national capital and Tamil Nadu got significant percentage of funding, with maximum of 33% flowing into the country from United States of America, said a senior home ministry officer .
Union home minister Rajnath Singh launched the web-based tool which enables various government departments to conduct big data mining and exploration of foreign funds and their actual use in the country. This, said the ministry in an official statement, would empower the departments to take data-driven and evidence-based decisions to enforce compliance of the provisions of the FCRA. Its dashboard will be integrated with the bank accounts of the FCRA-registered entities through the Public Financial Management System for updation of transactional data on a real-time basis, stated the ministry.
The ministry sources said there is more to recent people agitation against Sterlite Copper plant at Thoothukudi which was closed down on the orders of Tamil Nadu after public uproar over the death of 13 people in the police firing. A senior ministry officer said its suspected that some NGOs and other elements took advantage of people’s sentiments to fuel the agitation but the centre is waiting for detailed state government inquiry report which they are supposed to get from Tamil Nadu.
Before this, the ministry had analysed social media trend of the March 20 ‘Bharat Bandh’ call by Dalits to express their reservation against dilution of SC/ST act by the Supreme Court. It was reported that without any organization and political parties’ calling for agitations, SCs and STs had hit the street in large numbers in many parts of the country just by SMSs and other online posts.
A report prepared by the intelligence agencies showed that masked online identities were prepared on Facebook and Twitter to incite passion of Dalits against the government and Apex Court. The probe had revealed that some of the Twitter handle, which carried objectionable information, had their origin outside India, including in the Arab countries, said ministry sources.
The Modi government had launched a major crackdown against NGOs after it came to power in 2014. According to a reply by the home ministry to a query in Lok Sabha in January this year, licences of 4,842 NGOs were cancelled in 2017 for violation of various provisions of the FCRA. Earlier, the home ministry had cancelled registrations of 18,868 NGOs from 2011to 2017 for violating laws.
Courtesy: Economic Times
