Illegal Donations Bite Greenpeace: NGO To Halve Its Staff Due To Frozen Accounts Over FCRA Violation

Environment group Greenpeace might be halving its staff to 30 next year due to a block on its bank accounts after violation of FCRA norms, Reuters has reported.

The Enforcement Directorate had frozen the bank accounts of Greenpeace on 5 October. The non-profit organisation has denied any wrongdoing and claimed that it has funds to pay its employees only for two months.

Greenpeace spokesman, Nandikesh Sivalingam, said that action of the government was part of multi-pronged attack on the NGO. The NGO is fighting against coal-fired power plants. The spokesperson said that the coal lobby is strong in the country and would not allow governments to move away from the fuel even if they wanted to.

The Enforcement Directorate has refused to comment on the matter. President of lobby group, Independent Power Producers Association of India, Asok Gupta, told Economic Times that it was unfair to blame power producers for action against Greenpeace as it was the NGO which was found guilty of violating the law.

The Narendra Modi government has cancelled licenses of nearly 15,000 non- governmental groups under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act since 2014. In October, the government froze the bank accounts of Amnesty International after a raid on its office