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Foreign-funded NGOs must now transact online (FILE)

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Fresh crackdown: Licence of 4,470 NGOs cancelled (FILE)

NEW DELHI: For a country ranking low in social indices, the data provided to the Supreme Court on Friday by the CBI on non-government organisations was both startling and heartening — there are two NGOs for every policeman.On a petition filed by advocate M L Sharma alleging misuse of funds by an Anna Hazare-led NGO in Maharashtra, the SC had asked the CBI two years ago to count the number of NGOs and how many were filing annual income and expenditure details with the Registrar of Societies.At the last count on September 1, the CBI found that there were 30,81,873 NGOs operating in India which would indicate a heartening trend of so many organisations working for the uplift of a large population.But this heartening finding was accompanied by a startling feature — only 10% of the 3 million NGOs submit accounts of their funding and expenditure to the authorities as mandatorily required under the Societies Registration Act. This means no one knows how more than 27 lakh NGOs spent their funds.Of the total 30.81 lakh NGOs registered under the Societies Registration Act, only 2.9 lakh NGOs filed annual returns with the authorities indicating their fund inflow and expenditure details. Jammu & Kashmir with 147 NGOs and Mizoram with 34 NGOs were fully compliant with the law requiring annual filing of funding and expenditure details.The NGOs outnumber the total police force by almost two to one. Total policemen, both civil and armed, in India number 15.85 lakh.Sharma’s PIL had alleged misuse of funds by Hazare’s NGO Hind Swaraj Trust (HST). After the state government provided details of misuse of funds, a bench headed by Justice H L Dattu had on September 2, 2013, asked the CBI to find out details of funding of NGOs across India.Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology, which functions under the rural development ministry, had given a grant of Rs 1 lakh to HST for watershed development in three villages in 1999-2001, but more than 90% of the money was spent on honorarium, travelling, printing and stationery, the court was told.