New Delhi, November 19: The Centre has stopped the funding of 266 NGOs after they failed the governmental audit. The Ministry of Social Justice has cancelled the grant of NGOs as the comprehensive audit disclosed widespread irregularities in their functioning. Some of them disclosed to be shell NGOs created to seek government funds without any activity conducted through it.According to a report in Times of India, the first-of-its-kind audit was carried out all over the country for NGOs that have been engaged by the ministry in old-age welfare, running of schools and hostels for underprivileged children, and drug de-addiction centres. India News | Govt Tightens Rules for NGOs Intending to Receive Funds from Abroad.

The government hired 20 students from top institutes like IITs, TISS, DU and other central universities to carry out the audit in 1,233 NGOs and  the results exposed several malpractices.The report said that the Ministry of Social Justice provided over Rs 25 Lakh per institution to 1267 NGOs, with an overall budget of Rs 500 Crore, for implementing welfare activities and undertake measure for upliftment of the society.   However more than 250 NGOs were found misusing the funds allocated to them without undertaking any social welfare activity. The grants to several NGOs have been cancelled, many are black-listed and a show-cause notice has been issued at some NGOs to clarify the results of the auditing. India News | Over 600 NGO-run Child Care Homes Received Foreign Funds Up to Rs 6 Lakh Per Child in 2018-19: NCPCR.

Of the total 1,233 audited NGOs, 164 are associated with schools/hostels for SCs and 44 of them were found to be non-operative. 120 Senior Citizen Homes were found non-operational and 102 NGOs  associated with de-addiction centres were non-functional.The Centre plans to install CCTVs in the offices of these NGOs in order to supervise the functioning of the institutions .

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 19, 2020 02:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).