Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee expressed shock to hear that the Centre has frozen all bank accounts of Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa.
She said that this move has left Missionaries of Charity’s 22,000 patients and employees without food and medicines.
She wrote “Shocked to hear that on Christmas, Union Ministry froze all bank accounts of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in India!. Their 22,000 patients & employees have been left without food & medicines.”
“While the law is paramount, humanitarian efforts must not be compromised,” she added.
But in an hour or two, news reports came out bearing clarifications from the Charity group’s spokesperson “We have not been told anything regarding this. I am not aware of this at all. The Government of India has not told us anything. Bank transactions are working fine. Everything is fine,” said Missionaries of Charity spokesperson Sunita Kumar.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement saying it had not frozen the bank accounts of Missionaries of Charity but refused the renewal of the group’s FCRA registration.
The ministry said, “The application under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act [FCRA] for the renewal of FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity (MoC) was refused on December 25, 2021, for not meeting the eligibility conditions under FCRA 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules (FCRR) 2011. No request/revision application has been received from Missionaries of Charity for review of this refusal of renewal.”
“MoC’s registration was valid up to October 31, 2021. The validity was subsequently extended to December 31, 2021 along with other FCRA associations whose renewal applications were pending. MHA didn’t freeze any accounts of MoC,” the ministry added.