TIA NEWS
NEW DELHI: Greenpeace International’s license to operate in India has been cancelled and it has given 30 days to close down its office, citing financial fraud and falsification of data, the environment watchdog said on Friday.
Greenpeace India, has confirmed that its registration as a society has been cancelled by Registrar of Societies in Tamil Nadu.
Greenpeace termed the fresh notice of cancellation of its registration as an extension of the deep intolerance for differing viewpoints. The NGO asserted that it would again seek legal redress.
“Today, I received a letter that the Greenpeace India’s society registration has been cancelled. We have been told to pass a resolution to wind our operations up. We will of course challenge this in court, but clearly the crackdown by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on civil society groups like Greenpeace India continues,” said Vinuta Gopal, co-Executive Director of Greenpeace India
“Their allegations and especially those of ‘fraud’ are completely ridiculous. The Registrar of Society has failed to understand basic financial reporting and has confused foreign donations with Indian, which are reported separately per legal requirements. This was pointed out to them but they have ignored our clarification – read the documents and make your own mind up” green peace said in a satement.
Union home ministry had recently told Delhi high court that it cancelled the foreign contribution registration of the Greenpeace as it was continuing to use its Foreign Contribution Registration Act accounts despite the suspension of the same.
Last year, the government withdrew permission to Greenpeace to receive foreign funding, saying the money was used to block industrial projects.
Greenpeace denied any wrongdoing and said the closure was a “clumsy tactic” to silence dissent.