GWPF | 10 April 2015
Government Report Raises Concern About Britain’s Green Influence
Greenpeace India’s all seven bank accounts have been frozen with immediate effect. The Central government has suspended the registration of the organisation, including its branches and units for six months beginning Thursday. The order comes against the backdrop of government reports raising concerns that the United Kingdom has been showing interest in the organisation’s India operations. –Devesh Pandey, The Hindu, 10 April 2015
The Indian government has frozen seven bank accounts belonging to Greenpeace’s India arm and suspended the environmental group’s foreign-funding license for allegedly violating rules governing overseas currency transfers. It is the latest move to block activities of nonprofits that some officials regard as anti-development. –Joana Sugden, The Wall Street Journal, 9 April 2015
1) India Bans Greenpeace Funding, Suspends Licence – The Hindu, 10 April 2015
2) Greenpeace India Guilty Of Lobbying, Says Govt Dossier – Deccan Herald, 10 April 2015
3) Why India Is At War With Greenpeace – The Washington Post, 9 April 2015
4) Has Britain Discovered New Oil Bonanza Under Southern England? – TIME, 10 April 2015
5) Shock, Horror: West Virginia Board Of Education Allows Climate Debate In Schools – Charleston Daily Mail, 9 April 2015
A dossier prepared by the Union Home Ministry on March 4 claimed that Greenpeace’s foreign contribution was used “to influence and lobby” for the formation of government policies. It claimed that the “foreign funded campaign and protest creation by Greenpeace India led to wastage of financial resources, prevented creation of productive capital and caused loss of jobs and incomes for locals, apart from depriving the country of energy”. Another result of Greenpeace protest was “slowing down Government of India’s energy policy implementation by physically preventing the commission of new nuclear and coal based energy projects” and “creating hurdles in the path of existing coal based plants”. —Deccan Herald, 10 April 2015
India’s environmental war are heating up. On Thursday, India suspended Greenpeace India’s ability to receive foreign funds and froze its bank accounts on Thursday, the latest in a series of run-ins the global green watchdog has had with the government here in the past five years. The government said the group had “prejudicially affected the economic interest of the state.” In recent months, the group has mounted a massive protest to block coal mining project in central India, even as the government is trying kickstart a number of stalled industrial projects across the country. A secret intelligence agency note, leaked to the local media last year, had called the group’s activities a threat to “national economic security.” –Rama Lakshmi, The Washington Post, 9 April 2015
Britain may — and the keyword here is ‘may’ — have just discovered an oil resource to rival the North Sea, underneath the leafy shires of southern England. If confirmed, the news could transform the energy balance of one of Europe’s largest economies. But finding the oil is likely to be the easy part. Any development would be sure to face enormous opposition from environmental campaigners and local residents. –Geoffrey Smith, TIME, 10 April 2015
Two months after withdrawing its controversial science education standards with modifications that would have asked students to question the scientific community’s assertion that global warming is caused by human greenhouse emissions, the West Virginia Board of Education voted Thursday to amend the standards once again to allow classroom debate on climate change. Opponents of the changes, pointing out peer-reviewed research on climate change, have said that scientific facts should not be debated. –Samuel Speciale, Charleston Daily Mail, 9 April 2015
1) India Bans Greenpeace Funding, Suspends Licence
The Hindu, 10 April 2015
Devesh Pandey
Greenpeace India’s all seven bank accounts have been frozen with immediate effect.
Citing various grounds for the suspension of the FCRA registration of Greenpeace India and the freezing of its accounts, the Union Home Ministry on Thursday alleged the organisation did not inform the authorities concerned about transfer of foreign contributions received in the designated account to the FCRA utilisation account and then to five other accounts.
The seven accounts in IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank have been frozen with immediate effect.
Listing the alleged violations, the order said the NGO under-reported and repeatedly mentioned incorrect amount of foreign contributions. It’s foreign account opening balance for 2008-09, which was actually over Rs.6.6 crore, was reported nil in the auditor’s certificate. Greenpeace India had later described it as a typographical error.
The MHA also charged the NGO with incurring over 50 per cent of foreign donations on administrative expenditure during 2011-12 and 2012-13 without prior approval; and willfully suppressing details on salary payment by Greenpeace International to “Greenpeace activist” Greg Muttitt, who worked on secondment with Greenpeace India for over five months in 2013-14.
Economic interest hurt
Stating that acceptance of foreign contributions by Greenpeace India has prejudicially affected the public and the economic interest of the country in violation of the Section 12 (4)(f)(iii) and Section 12(4)(f)(ii) of the FCRA, the government said the act also amounted to violation of the conditions of grant of registration certificate.
Accordingly, the Central government has suspended the registration of the organisation, including its branches and units, under the FCRA, for six months beginning Thursday. The organisation can make a representation in this regard within 30 days.
The order comes against the backdrop of MHA reports raising concerns that the United Kingdom has been showing interest in the organisation’s India operations. “The UK Parliament had invited Greenpeace India to ‘testify’ against the Indian government in a formal hearing. A UK-based TV channel had also sought to internationalise related issues last year,” said an MHA official.
The government also took exception to Greenpeace India’s participation at the Istanbul Coal Strategy Conference-2012. “At the Istanbul Conference, US-based funding agencies projected India as the primary target for thermal power plant activism,” said the official.
Sponsored by US-based Climate Works Foundation (CWF) and World Resources Institute, the Conference had identified 999 thermal power plant sites in the world, of which about half were in India.
The official said the Conference had resolved to focus on the Singrauli region in India.
2) Greenpeace India Guilty Of Lobbying, Says Govt Dossier
Deccan Herald, 10 April 2015
A dossier prepared by the Union Home Ministry on March 4 claimed that Greenpeace’s foreign contribution was used “to influence and lobby” for the formation of government policies.
It claimed that the “foreign funded campaign and protest creation by Greenpeace India led to wastage of financial resources, prevented creation of productive capital and caused loss of jobs and incomes for locals, apart from depriving the country of energy”.
The dossier, prepared after investigations for six months beginning last September, said the non-operationalisation of Mahan coal block was due to the “protest-creation” of Greenpeace in Singrauli and eight other locations.
Another result of Greenpeace protest was “slowing down Government of India’s energy policy implementation by physically preventing the commission of new nuclear and coal based energy projects” and “creating hurdles in the path of existing coal based plants”.
The green body is also accused of “conspiring with foreign NGOs and donors” at the Coal Strategy Conference in Istanbul in 2012 to create “people-centric” protests in India.
Another accusation was the creation of “unionism among construction workers in order to use the manpower to populate protest movements by deploying UK-based Greenpeace activist Benjamin David Hergreaves, who in contravention of his business visa trained Greenpeace India activists”.
3) Why India Is At War With Greenpeace
The Washington Post, 9 April 2015
Rama Lakshmi
India’s environmental war are heating up. On Thursday, India suspended Greenpeace India’s ability to receive foreign funds and froze its bank accounts on Thursday, the latest in a series of run-ins the global green watchdog has had with the government here in the past five years.
The government said the group had “prejudicially affected the economic interest of the state.”
In recent months, the group has mounted a massive protest to block coal mining project in central India, even as the government is trying kickstart a number of stalled industrial projects across the country. A secret intelligence agency note, leaked to the local media last year, had called the group’s activities a threat to “national economic security.”
An official in the government told the NDTV 24×7 news television on Thursday that Greenpeace had done “very little field work” and had alsoviolated rules about how to spend foreign funds it received.
“This is a smear, pure and simple, said Greenpeace India’s executive director Samit Aich in a statement. “A campaign is being waged against dissent, but we will not be cowed.”
The group said that nearly 70 percent of its funding comes from tens of thousands of Indian donors.
In January, Priya Pillai, a Greenpeace activist was barred from boarding a flight to London to speak to British lawmakers against the project and alleged human rights abuses of the tribal people in the region.
The Delhi High Court in March ordered the government to remove Pillai’s name from the no-fly list and expunge the entry in her passport saying “offload.”
The court added that “the state may not accept the views of civil rights activists, but that by itself cannot be a good enough reason to do away with dissent.”
Activist groups working against coal-fired power plants and other infrastructure projects have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of diluting environmental rules and making it easier for businesses to buyland and set up factories. Modi came to power a year ago with the promise of reviving Asia’s third largest economy and break business bottlenecks.
But this is not the first time activist groups have faced government criticism in India. India’s tolerance of foreign-funded activist groups has shrunk steadily.
4) Has Britain Discovered New Oil Bonanza Under Southern England?
TIME, 10 April 2015
Geoffrey Smith
Britain may — and the keyword here is ‘may’ — have just discovered an oil resource to rival the North Sea, underneath the leafy shires of southern England.
