CBI, police to probe NGOs involved in anti-nuke stir

The government is readying its ammunition against non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which it suspects are using foreign funds to sponsor the ongoing agitation against the nuclear plant at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu. Shishir Gupta reports. PM on foreign funding of NGOs

Updated on: Feb 28, 2012, 02:21:09 IST

Hindustan Times | By Shishir Gupta, New Delhi

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The government is readying its ammunition against non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which it suspects are using foreign funds to sponsor the ongoing agitation against the nuclear plant at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.

A-file-photo-of-the-Kudankulam-nuclear-plant-in-Tamil-Nadu-Petr-Pavlicek-IAEA

After North Block suspected serious financial irregularities by 12 NGOs in handling foreign funds in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, the home ministry ordered a detailed inspection of their records and is all set to recommend CBI probes into the working of two NGOs while another two will be investigated by the state police.

It is understood that these NGOs had received funds from the US and Scandinavian countries.

Top government sources said a discreet yet comprehensive probe into NGOs allegedly involved in the Kudankulam nuclear plant agitation has identified a dozen of them suspected to be involved in falsification of documents, diversion of funds and lack of transparency in financial dealings.

The outcome of this probe was sent to home minister P Chidambaram and home secretary RK Singh a month ago. The matter was then referred to the foreigners division, which handles the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010, for action. Show cause notices will be issued on the basis of alleged discrepancies, it is learnt.

HT's sources also said an American nuclear equipment contractor had informed the highest officials that the US and European NGOs were behind the agitation against the Kudankulam plant.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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