Mother Teresa charity says no freeze on India accounts

Following the controversy over freezing the bank accounts of Mother Teresa's charity organisation by the central government, Missionaries of Charity has clarified that the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs ordered no such freeze.

"We would like to clarify that the FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity has been neither suspended nor cancelled. Further, there is no freeze ordered by the Ministry of Home Affairs on any of our bank accounts. We have been informed that our FCRA renewal application has not been approved. Therefore as a measure to ensure there is no lapse, we have asked our centres not to operate any of the FC accounts until the matter is resolved," reads the Missionaries of Charity statement.

The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that it refused to renew the FCRA license of Missionaries of Charity (MoC) on December 25 after it received adverse inputs while adding that it did not freeze any accounts of MoC.

In a statement, the MHA said that the renewal application under the FCRA for the renewal of FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity was refused on December 25, 2021, for not meeting the eligibility conditions under FCRA 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules (FCRR) 2011.

The Ministry said no request/revision application had been received from Missionaries of Charity to review this refusal of renewal.

"The FCRA registration of MoC was valid up to December 31, 2021. MHA did not freeze any accounts of MoC. State Bank of India has informed that MoC itself sent a request to SBI to freeze its accounts," the MHA said.

(ANI)