Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu’s Swarna Bharat Trust and Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y Sujana Chowdary’s Sujana Charitable trust are among 5,922 NGOs that received show cause notice from the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) for failing to file their Annual Returns pertaining to FY 2010-11 to 2014-15.

The associations have to reply to the government stating the reasons as to why their registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, (FCRA) should not be cancelled under Section 14 of FCRA, 2010. Failure to respond puts them at a risk of of losing their licence to receive foreign donations under the FCRA.

MHA noted that these organisations have ignored the several communications via emails and SMS alerts. These organisations have a deadline till 23July to reply to the show-cause notice issued on 8 July.

As per the FCRA and Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2011, the associations are obliged to submit their Annual Return beginning April 1 within nine months of the closure of the financial year. It may be noted that 20,000 NGOs were barred in December2016, from receiving foreign funding for allegedly violating provisions of the FCRA.