Wednesday, December 14 2005 14:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: As many as 355 NGOs, with the highest number of 113 in Bihar, have been blacklisted because of their involvement in corrupt practices, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh informed the Rajya Sabha today (Dec 14, 2005).

Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour, he said out of these, 106 NGOs were blacklisted due to submission of forged documents and no funds were released to these NGOs.

He said over Rs. 4.50 crore had been mis-utilised by these NGOs.

The blacklisted NGOs in Bihar accounted for the highest amount of misutilisation of Rs.87 lakh, he said.

Tribunal: The proposed Armed Forces Tribunal will be a judicial body whose chairman will be a retired Chief Justice of a High Court or a retired judge of the Supreme Court, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said answering a separate question.

He said there was no proposal before the Government for formulating a comprehensive common code of justice or discipline for Army, Navy and Air Force as each service had a separate work culture and ethos and operated in different environments.