New Delhi: In the latest in a long list of cancellations, the Union home ministry on February 3, cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of Tamil Nadu Social Service Society.

The society, abbreviated as TNSOSS, is a Christian non-governmental organisation under the aegis of the Tamil Nadu Catholic Bishops Conference. The Union government has alleged that the TNSOSS had violated FCRA rules.

Days before that, the Union government also cancelled the licence of the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a public policy think tank. The president of the organisation Yamini Aiyar had called the basis of this decision "incomprehensible and disproportionate".

Through a series of amendments to the FCRA, successive governments had imposed restrictions on the activities of several NGOs, leading them to face several challenges including a loss of jobs. However, in the last two years, concerns that the Union government is using the FCRA to curb the activities of NGOs that are critical of it have been raised in the back of thousands of licence cancellations.

The Hindu has reported that since 2011, the Union home ministry has cancelled more than 20,000 NGOs’ registrations, citing violations.