After Ladakh protests, foreign funding licence of Sonam Wangchuk’s NGO cancelled

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has cancelled the FCRA Certificate of Registration of ‘Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh’, an NGO run by Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk for a series of violations done while receiving funding for the organisation.

According to an official order by the Foreigner Division of the MHA, accessed by The Tribune, Wangchuk-led SEMCOL was granted registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act in 2010 to accept foreign contribution for undertaking Cultural and Educational Programme.

The Ministry found some irregularities following which it served a showcause notice earlier in August  as to why its FCRA registration certificate should not be cancelled in exercise of section 14 of the Act.

As per the notice, Wangchuk from 2021-22, deposited Rs 3.5 lakh into the FCRA account of the association in violation of Section 17 of the Act.

Responding to the notice, the NGO SEMCOL stated that the said amount of Rs 3,35,000 was deposited in FCRA's account as it was sale proceeds of an old bus procured in 2015 out of FCRA funds only.

However, the Ministry found that the amount was received in cash in violation of Section 17 of the Act which was not even  properly disclosed by the association in its reply.

The second violation was pertaining to receiving local funds of Rs 54,600 in the FCRA account. The NGO stated that it was inadvertently transferred into the FCRA account instead of the local account.

The third and most striking violation flagged by the MHA was about receiving donations for study on ‘Sovereignty of the country’, including some other topics and the fund had also been spent in line with the objectives of the foreign donors.

"The Foreign Contribution cannot be accepted for study on Sovereignty of the nation. This act of the association is against the national interest of the country," an excerpt from the order read.

The fourth instance was about returning a foreign donation of Rs 19,600. SEMCOL had received an amount of Rs.19,600 as Foreign Donation but they had returned the money into the donor's account owing to the Covid lockdown in June 2021.

"As such there is no provision in the Act for returning of foreign contribution to its donor. The act of the association to return foreign contributions to the donor is likely to be used for undesirable purposes for personal gain....," the order read.