Money spent only on welfare: NGOs

NAGERCOIL/MADURAI: The four NGOs, whose accounts have been frozen by the Home Ministry, have denied siphoning funds for any purpose other than the intended ones.  The fourth NGO, Rural Uplift Centre (RUC) in Nagercoil, has already filed a revision petition. A Maria Stephan, a programme coordinators of RUC, said the organisation, established in 1981, focused on human rights, child rights, legal intervention of women and children, sustained agriculture, natural farming, disaster management, drought mitigation, house building and other relief and welfare work for Dalits, downtrodden and beedi workers in Southern districts.“Between, January 12 and 14, officials from the Home Ministry visited our office and inspected the ongoing work. Later, on February 14, we got an official intimation from the Home Ministry saying that our accounts had been frozen on the grounds of public interest,” Stephan said and added that it was to put “psychological pressure” on them. “We gave boats, engines and nets to fisherman in Idinthakarai after the tsunami, expending around `30 crore. That was in March 2007. Apart from that we have not carried out any work at Idinthakarai and surrounding areas,” said the founder-cum-director and secretary of RUC, Augasuteen Maria James. The NGO, which gets funds from The Netherlands and Germany, has an annual turnover of `2 crore otherwise. “We are no way connected with the agitation against KKNPP,” he said.TDA and TMSSS, which claim to have extended moral support and not financial aid to the protests, have also filed revised petitions against the freezing of accounts and plan to approach the court, the spokesperson for both organisations, Fr William Sathanam, said. “We have not received any official communication on any case filed against us so we don’t want to respond to speculation.” “The MHA has send a notice mentioning that the account of TDA has been frozen under Foreign Contributions Regulation Act, 2010, but hasn’t mentioned the specific reason,” he added.“We are ready to prove our case anywhere,” he said and explained that but for the TMSSS constructing a toilet for Anne’s School at Koodankulam in March, last year, at a cost of Rs 1.25 lakh, no work has been done in that area. While it is said that TDA and TMSSS had received Rs 23 crore and Rs 43 crore respectively in the past five years, Santhanam said their activities involved helping schools, orphanages and churches that fall under Tuticorin Diocese. Between 2004 and 2007, they spent money for tsunami relief activities, he said. After officials from the MHA visited their office in January, they examined all the documents and expressed satisfaction over the records, he said.