Govt ensures Greenpeace name in green NGOs’ list

Even as the Greenpeace India has been facing heat from the home ministry over the FCRA issues, the Union environment ministry has ensured its place in the government’s directory of environmental NGOs. 

The directory, which consists names of 2,300 green NGOs, including Greenpeace, was released on Tuesday by the Union Environment and Forests minister Prakash Javadekar. The directory was released ahead of the government’s plan to bring out <g data-gr-id="33">new</g> performance-based rating of non-government organisations (NGOs), working in the field of <g data-gr-id="34">environment</g> across the country. 

The Home Ministry’s foreigners division had on September 3 this year cancelled the Greenpeace India’s registration under the FCRA, alleging that the NGO was working against the country’s economic progress. The NGO, that has been campaigning on clean air, clean water and clean electricity issues in the country for long, had, however, on September 16 got a relief from the Madras high court that granted an interim stay of eight weeks over the cancellation of its FCRA registration in India. 

The directory of green NGOs has been compiled by the Environmental Information System (ENVIS) Centre, WWF-India on behalf of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). 

The database covers all relevant information catalogued under various appropriate heads, including minute details like the total strength of the permanent as well as part-time staff, number of members and geographical coverage in addition to general information comprising the name, address, status (registered/ Non-registered, trust/ society/ group), and the commencement of activities. The directory is compiled in such a way that it can be used effectively by government agencies, voluntary groups, libraries, researchers, aid agencies, the media and educational institutions. 

Releasing the directory of ‘Environmental NGOs in India – 2015’, Javadekar said the government will bring out a new performance-based rating of non-government organisations (NGOs) working in the field of environment, to encourage them. He said NGOs were a bridge between the government and people. 

The minister also called for a need to add new features for the next edition, to make it even more useful, comprehensive and user-friendly.  

The directory, now in its 10th edition, contains a list of about 2300 NGOs in all the States and Union Territories working towards environmental protection, conservation and awareness.

An NGO cell has already been set up in the environment ministry to handle various matters relating to NGOs’ work in diverse fields of <g data-gr-id="26">environment</g>. 

The functions of the cell are: collection and dissemination of information to NGOs; maintaining  liaison with the NITI Aayog and other ministries to create a database of various NGOs, working in the field of environment and associated areas.