The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has cited nine reasons for cancelling the registration of Greenpeace India under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
One of them is payment of annual salary of around 56,951 Euros to international activist Greg Muttitt. While Greenpeace has maintained that Mr. Muttitt, author of ‘Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq’, was on a valid work permit to India, the government said the NGO concealed the information and it chanced upon his salary slip during an inspection.
The MHA order of September 2 said: “Greenpeace India Society has wilfully suppressed and not disclosed the payment of salary Euro 56,951.16 per annum by Greenpeace International to Greg Muttitt, a foreign Greenpeace activist, who worked on secondment with Greenpeace India Society in India for 5 months...... and violated Section 33 of FCRA, 2010, by not reporting the details thereof in the returns filed to the government.”
The cancellation of FCRA permit of Greenpeace India effectively means that the NGO can no longer receive foreign funds and would have to depend on domestic contributions for its operations. Greenpeace has said at various forums that 90 per cent of its funds come from domestic contributors.
T.N. probe under wayThe Tamil Nadu government is also probing a case against Greenpeace India under the Registrar of Societies Act and if it is found guilty on that front too, it could lose its licence to operate as an NGO altogether.
