Government move smokescreen to shut down our operations: Greenpeace

NEW DELHI: Greenpeace India, facing suspension of its licence to receive funds, today alleged that the government's move is a "smokescreen" to shut down its operations in the country completely.

Last week, the Home Ministry had temporarily suspended the NGO's licence to receive money from overseas and served it with a show cause notice for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

"However, the MHA's actions indicate that the alleged FCRA violations are a smokescreen for the government to shut down the NGO's entire operations. Greenpeace India gets almost 70 per cent of its funds from Indians, and the MHA has ordered that these funds be frozen as well. There is no provision in the FCRA Act, 2010 which permits this," the NGO said in a statement.

Samit Aich, Executive Director of Greenpeace India said the organisation will follow due process and respond to the MHA's claims of FCRA violations and take the matter to court.

"But the government has also blocked our domestic accounts and is now preventing ordinary Indians from supporting our work for clean air, healthy forests, pesticide-free food... this shows quite clearly that the real objective is not to restrict our access to foreign funds, but to shut us down completely," it claimed.

It alleged that by blocking local funding, the government is "dismissing" the concerns of the over 70,000 Indians who support it financially.

The government had on April 9 blocked foreign fundings to Greenpeace India with immediate effect by suspending its licence for six months and served a notice to the NGO asking why its registration should not be cancelled.

The decision was taken by the Home Ministry after it was found that the NGO has "prejudicially affected the public interests and economic interests of the country in violation" of FCRA.