Indian government has frozen all bank accounts of Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed on Monday. Expressing shock, Banerjee said that this move has left Missionaries of Charity’s 22,000 patients and employees without food and medicines.
“Shocked to hear that on Christmas, Union Ministry FROZE ALL BANK ACCOUNTS of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in India! Their 22,000 patients & employees have been left without food & medicines,” she tweeted. “While the law is paramount, humanitarian efforts must not be compromised,” Banerjee added.
Officials at the Missionaries of Charity organisation have refused to comment at this time, reported NDTV. There is also no word from the Centre explaining why, if the accounts have been frozen, action was taken.
However, earlier this month news agency AFP reported that police in Gujarat were investigating if the Missionaries of Charity had forced girls in a shelter home there to wear a cross and read the Bible. The Missionaries of Charity, founded in 1950 by the late Mother Teresa – a Roman Catholic nun who lived and worked in Kolkata for most of her life and won the Nobel Peace Prize – denied all charges.
Mother Teresa died in September 1997. She was accorded a state funeral for her service to the poor, irrespective of caste and creed. In September 2016 she was elevated to sainthood by Pope Francis.
