the Planning Commission has come down heavily upon non-governmental organisations (ngos). Henceforth, no funds would be provided to ngos by the Commission. The move came in the wake of controversies regarding misuse of grants given to some of these organisations. Simultaneously, the government is considering a proposal which calls for the formation of a single agency to oversee the funding of ngos by various departments and ministries.
The government is reportedly keen on this proposal because it foresees a bigger role for voluntary agencies but at the same time, it wants to check the financial irregularities resulting from the lack of co-ordination among the funding agencies.Recently, the Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology, an offshoot of the ministry of rural employment, had blacklisted 376 of some 5,500 ngos listed under it (Down To Earth, Vol 4, No 4) . In fact, all the government agencies giving grants to ngos maintain their own blacklists, but due to poor co-ordination among them, some of the blacklisted ngos manage to take money from more than one agency.
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