T raids: No fund diversion at Bala Vikasa, says ED
Executive director S. Shoury Reddy of Bala Vikasa.
Warangal: The IT raids took place only at 11 but not at 40 locations which include the offices and residences of key functionaries of Bala Vikasa Social Service Society, said executive director of the Society Singareddy Shoury Reddy on Saturday.
It is to be noted that for the past three days, the officials of the Income Tax department conducted searches at offices and residences of its founder Bala Theresa Singareddy Gingras and executive director S. Shoury Reddy of Bala Vikasa, an Indo-Canadian Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) to check any diversion of foreign funds obtained by the NGO under FCRA rules in Warangal and Hyderabad regions took place.
The search operations were completed by Saturday afternoon and the IT officials seized some important files and documents during the raids.
Speaking to the media, Shoury Reddy said that for the past 30 years, Bala Vikasa had been working on multi-sectoral community-driven development programmes following strictly the FCRA and CSR laws and had been lauded for its accountability and transparency. He refuted all the allegations of diversion of funds as baseless and made only to defame the organization. Bala Vikasa is known for its austerity and frugality. Every single rupee saved goes towards designing and implementing development initiatives for the poor and marginalised people, he noted.
The Society has been audited and scrutinised by both statutory auditors and donor-appointed auditors and received appreciation for its fiscal management. Bala Vikasa has complete faith in the country’s governing systems and processes and is ready to cooperate with relevant regulatory authorities and will furnish all the necessary information as and when they require clarifications, he said.
