Bureaucrat suspended over renewal of Zakir Naik’s NGO license

TIL Desk/National/Mumbai-Days after a Joint Secretary was suspended in the Home Ministry for the online renewal of Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) license of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik’s NGO, his colleagues’ petitioned Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi to convey that great injustice had been done to the officer.

The Joint Secretary, G.K. Dwivedi, a 1993 batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh cadre was suspended along with two Under Secretaries and a section officer on September 2 for alleged dereliction of duty. One of the officers Kumar Alok told “We rate him as an officer of highest level of integrity, he has implemented so many projects including the merger of PIO-OIC card that was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Madison Square in U.S in 2014.”

Another official said that the online system, through which Mr. Naik’s NGO — the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) license was renewed does not have any provisions for “red-flagged” NGOs. “There is no manual interface. While the red flagging is manual, the renewal (of license) is electronic. Great injustice has been done to him but we believe in the system that it will be corrected,” said a senior home ministry official.