By Nagabhushanam Hoskote
Copyright deccanchronicle
ANANTAPUR: The state’s Rural Development Trust (RDT) is on the verge of closure due to non-renewal of central government permissions under the foreign contributions regulation act. Along with this, nine other NGOs in the country are facing a similar crisis, it is learnt.Activists supporting the trust blame the state government and the MPs from AP for their “failure” to convince the Centre over the licence renewal issue. Ministers, MLAs and MPs from the region had represented chief minister Chandrababu Naidu to get in touch with the Centre and clear the hurdles for the trust to continue its services, but the deadlock continues for the past six months. The trust was set up by a Father Ferror in 1969, which kept receiving funds from abroad towards charity activities.As a result of the licence non-renewal, the trust’s services to the order of hundreds of crores are likely to stop and thousands of employees might lose their jobs with the NGO, sources told Deccan Chronicle.Notably, the home affairs ministry sought fresh reports from various agencies at district and state levels as the government was not satisfied with the positive reports submitted by the trust. The people of Anantapur, Satya Sai and Kurnool districts came on the roads in demonstrations to seek FCRA licence renewal for the trust so as to ensure continuation of its pro-poor and pro-farmer services. The Intelligence Bureau reportedly submitted a final report to the home affairs ministry to clear the renewal process after a fresh application was sent recently to the Centre by the RDT. Voluntary services in sectors like healthcare, education, women’s empowerment, ecological restoration and habitat improvement would hit the Rayalaseema region adversely due to the present impasse, the sources claimed. Importantly, three major hospitals – at Bathalapalli and Kanekal and Kalyandurg in Anantapur district– will have to close by September end if the renewal process is delayed. More than five lakh people would be affected by a likely stoppage of quality medical aid. The trust reportedly spends as high as `80 crore in the health care sector in the region a year, it is learnt. What could be affected are some 8.5 lakh outpatient visits and 60,000 inpatient admissions,15,000 deliveries and 15,000 surgeries, 4,900 individuals receiving HIV care, including second-line ART, 170 children with thalassemia under treatment, the schedules for 26 bone marrow transplants, jobs for 691 healthcare professionals, including 37 DNB residents in combined Anantapur and nearby Karnataka areas. The rural development trust has served rural communities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana since its establishment in 1969 by Father Ferror. As a non-religious and non-political non-profit entity, RDT says its mission is committed to fostering sustainable development. Its services positively impacted over 4,50,000 families across 3,906 villages through interventions in education, healthcare, women’s empowerment, disability-inclusive development, habitat and ecology and sustainable livelihoods. FCRA funding has been instrumental in sustaining RDT’s operations. Discover Anantapur founder AG Anil Kumar who has been leading agitations for the past three months for the trust’s licence renewal urged the government to solve the issue at the earliest. Anantapur MP Ambika Lakshmi Narayana told Deccan Chronicle that home minister Amith Shah has promised to solve the issue after studying the IB report.
