Mother Teresa's charity denies bank account freeze after Mamata blames Centre

The charity, founded by Mother Teresa, issued a clarification saying the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act registration has been “neither suspended nor cancelled.”

The Missionaries of Charity on Monday said the Union home ministry has not ordered a freeze on any of its bank accounts after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged the same. The charity, founded by Mother Teresa, issued a clarification saying the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act registration has been “neither suspended nor cancelled.”

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that all bank accounts of Missionaries of Charity were frozen by the Centre. (ANI)

“We would like to clarify that the FCRA registration of the 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,” the statement read.

The clarification followed a statement by the Union home ministry in which it said the application for the renewal of FCRA registration was refused on December 25 for not meeting the eligibility conditions under the FCRA 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules 2011. The ministry added that no request or revision application was received for review of the refusal of renewal.

“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 ministry stated.

Earlier today, Mamata Banerjee claimed that all bank accounts of Missionaries of Charity were frozen by the Centre. Expressing shock on Twitter, the Trinamool leader said that 22,000 patients and employees of the Kolkata-based charity group were left without food and medicines after the alleged order by the Centre. She said “while the law is paramount, humanitarian efforts must not be compromised.”

“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,” Missionaries of Charity said denying any such freeze.