Government plans in-house rating for NGOs receiving Environment Ministry grants

NEW DELHI: Government today said an in-house rating of NGOs receiving grants from the Environment Ministry will be done to rank them on the basis of their performance.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, while releasing the 10th edition of 'Directory of Environment NGOs' said a system will be created to assess the performance of such NGOs.

"We will create a system where the performance of NGOs receiving Environment Ministry's grant will be assessed to see whether the money has been spent on the purpose it was mentioned for and second, whether the message for which the amount is given has reached the people and the purpose is achieved," he said.

He said this will be an incentive for the NGOs to perform better.

"We want to create an indexation of NGOs for incentivizing them wherein good NGOs will be appreciated and others who fall back will also get stimulus to get better. We would create a constant dialogue with people through NGOs," he said.

The minister said that Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) should not be viewed as the only criterion to recognise NGOs.

"FCRA is not the only criterion of recognize NGOs because there are thousands of NGOs who are working without foreign donation and they create resources within the country and work with masses and people. So those organisations will also be recognized," he said.

The directory complied by WWF has enlisted 2300 organisations and will be put on public domain after few changes and amendments, the minister said.

The database covers information under various heads including details such as geographical coverage, commencement of activities, staff strength and contact details.

Dr G. Areendran, Coordinator, Environment Information System, WWF, said around 4000 NGOs were sent application forms but only 40 per cent of them could be verified.

"Verifying authenticity of NGOs was the biggest challenge. They were required to submit mandatory documents including registration number, financial dealings, details of projects, utilization certificate and auditing," he said.