Punjab elections: NGOs under scanner for foreign funding

In poll-bound Punjab, several NGOs have come under scanner for engaging in illegal fund raising for political parties.

Chandigarh, Jan 18: Several NGOs in Punjab have come under the scanner of the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Income Tax authorities ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections 2017. Sleuths of both the agencies are keeping a close watch on the flow of funds especially from abroad into these NGOs.

Sources say that the money flow tends to increase at the time of the elections and a similar scenario was witnessed during the previous assembly elections as well. There is a lot of funding from Non Resident Indians that tend to come in to fund the electoral process, an officer with the FIU informed.

The money flow is particularly high from the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom and Europe. It is suspected that some politicians who may have parked funds abroad instruct their relatives or friends to send the money back into NGOs in Punjab ahead of the elections.

Moreover, post-demonetisation there is shortage of cash and this has hit the politicians in the poll-bound states. At such a time, attempts would be made to bring back the money parked abroad to India in a bid to fund the election process.

The officials suspect that there would be a lot of NRI funding during these elections and hence close tabs are being kept especially on the NGOs through which a major chunk of this money is routed, officials added.

OneIndia News