New Delhi/Kolkata: Confusion and shock prevailed all across after the reports came that all the bank accounts of Missionaries of Charity -- the non-profit organisation formed by Mother Teresa to help the people have been frozen.
While the Missionaries of Charity has refused comments, Ministry of Home Affairs (NHA) said it did not issue any order on the matter and the banks froze the accounts after they received request from the Missionaries of Charity.
Earlier there were reports that claimed that the central authorities issued orders on Sunday evening to cease all transactions through these bank accounts across India, leaving 22,000 patients and people without any treatment and food.
Though the authorities of Missionaries of Charity were not ready to say anything, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed shock at the behaviour of the central government.
"Shocked to hear that on Christmas, the Union Ministry FROZE ALL BANK ACCOUNTS of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in India! Their 22,000 patients & employees have been left without food & medicines (sic)”, she wrote on her verified Twitter account.
"While the law is paramount, humanitarian efforts must not be compromised," she wrote on her verified Twitter account”, she added.
Commenting on the reports, CPM leader Surya Kanta Mishra wrote on Twitter, "Yesterday, Christmas Day the Union Ministry FROZED ALL BANK ACCOUNTS of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. The Govt has frozen all the accounts in India, including cash in hand. Their 22,000 patients, including employees, are left without food and medicines."
The government did not freeze bank accounts operated by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, the Home Ministry said Monday evening, claiming that the Kolkata-based organisation had itself written to the State Bank of India asking for its accounts to be suspended.
The ministry said that on December 25 it refused to renew the organisation's FCRA, or Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, licence after being made aware of "adverse inputs".
"In consideration of these inputs on record, the renewal application of Missionaries of Charity was not approved. The FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity was valid up to December 31, 2021," a statement from the ministry said.
"MHA did not freeze any accounts of Missionaries of Charity. State Bank of India has informed that Missionaries of Charity itself sent a request to SBI to freeze its accounts," the statement clarified.
The development comes amid a series of attack on Christians, churches and BJP ruled states mulling laws against what they call "forced religion conversion".
Meanwhile, a Karnataka based activist has filed police complaint against Karnataka CM, State Assembly Speaker and other for presenting a Bill against religious conversion. Some other senior BJP leaders who supported the Bill have also been named in the compliant.
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