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| NGOs swindle crores, involved in Hawala transactions; J&K knows nothing | | 'Data bank not created' | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Jan 28: Jammu and Kashmir government has no data on the number of non-governmental organiza-tions (NGOs) active in various parts of the state and funds received by them both from the national as well as international sources.
Government also has no clue about the funds received by these NGOs from both national as well as international organizations. Even primary data related to funding of these NGOs by various central government departments has not been maintained. According to independent but officially unverified reports, more than 20,000 NGOs exist on papers in the three regions of the state i.e. Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
Despite this huge number and with consistent intelligence reports of involvement of some of the NGOs in 'Hawala Transactions', sources said that J&K government's inability to maintain even rough data raises serious security concerns vis-à-vis the funding of terror outfits and modules connected with them. The non-availability of NGO data with J&K government has been brought to light by Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in its recently released report "India's Funds to NGOs Squandered".
ACHR in its report released a few days back has categorically stated that Jammu and Kashmir alongwith some other states failed to provide any information about grants made to the non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Gravity of situation can be gauged from the fact that ACHR was not provided any information even under the much talked about Right to Information (RTI) Act.
ACHR repeatedly sought the information but was not provided even the primary class data about the total number of NGOs operating in the three regions of the state. Council report further castigates the government by maintaining that departments which replied did not provide full information. Crores have been swindled and in some case, used for funding terror activities yet the state has no credible data base.
Terming RTI rules framed by state government as strange, ACHR has said that strange RTI Rules framed by some state governments and Union Territories compounded the problem as no information could be obtained. It has added that reminders and appeals to various departments of the Jammu and Kashmir government under Right to Information (RTI) yielded no results.
This is despite intelligence agencies repeatedly cautioning the government about NGOs emerging as popular source of money laundering; a method through which the black money earned from illegal sources is converted into white money. These agencies have warned both the union home ministry and the Jammu and Kashmir government about NGO culture having grown into popularity amongst the corrupted cult of politicians and business men in India and abroad.
They have further said that NGOs and Trusts are being used as safest methods to do Hawala Transactions once money received by these organizations is tax free and no investigation is done. Despite these repeated pronouncements and warnings by intelligence agencies, state government has not done any exercise towards collecting data about NGOs operational in various parts of the state.
ACHR has said that central ministries and departments have so far released more than Rs. 4756 crore as grants to voluntary organizations/non-governmental organizations during the fiscal years (FYs) 2002-2003 to 2008-2009 while the State Governments and Union Territories released Rs. 1,897 crore during the same period. This implies that a total of Rs. 950 crore is released by union government every year to NGOs and other social organizations, with J&K government knowing nothing where goes the J&K's share.
ACHR maintains that government is clearly best placed to manage these funds but equally has a responsibility to ensure that tax payers' money is transparently and efficiently spent on well defined priorities that are determined in a democratic process. It asserts that government cannot claim to have fulfilled any of these conditions.
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