Missionaries of Charity under govt scanner for foreign funds

Kolkata, June 29: The crackdown of the Indian government on the foreign funded non-governmental organisations has involved at least three major organisations, including Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity of West Bengal.

Based on the inputs by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Enforcement Directorate has initiated a probe into the financials of 12 NGOs in Bengal and Orissa. Of 12 NGOs, five are based in Kolkata and seven are headquartered in Orissa.

The directorate has started an ‘open inquiry into the foreign funding’ to the NGOs. Significantly, the investigation has put some of the big names like Missionaries of Charity under scanner.

ED served notices to all of these organizations and sought financial details. It was learnt from informed sources that four of these NGOs received huge amount of foreign funds, mostly from USA and Canada, in tune of Rs 500 crore in last couple of years. The NGOs have already submitted details’ responding to the notices served by ED; however, the directorate has found some reports as ‘inconclusive’.

“We have received documents from the NGOs. All of these NGOs have several branches. The documents are being scrutinized now. Some of the NGOs said that they have disbursed funds for certain activities which are not on record,’ said a source.

It was learnt that MoC received around Rs 197 cr while another NGO in Kolkata—Compassion East— received around Rs 220 cr from foreign countries.