Anna Hazare, trustees suspended from NGO

Social activist Anna Hazare and other trustees of his NGO, ‘Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan’, have been suspended for not dropping the word “anti-corruption” from its name.

Joint charity commissioner of Pune region, Shivkumar Dige, had in June last year directed the NGOs to drop ‘anti-corruption’ references from their names and threatened to suspend the trustees if they refused to comply with the order.

“As my order was not complied with, the trustees are being suspended till final orders in the case. The inspector at the trust registration office in Ahmednagar is being appointed as its administrator,” Mr Dige said in an order passed three days ago.

He had asked the charitable organisations to drop words such as ‘Bhrashtachar Virodhi’, ‘Bhrashtachar Nirmulan’, ‘Against Corruption’ among others from their names, on the ground that fighting graft did not fall in the domain of such organisations which should stick to charity/social service.

The issue snowballed into a major face-off after Hazare announced his refusal to change the name of his NGO. He also said the government should focus on removing corruption rather than harassing the NGOs. Mr Dige had served notices to 20 NGOs in Pune division.