The government has, over the past one month, prohibited 4,139 NGOs from receiving contributions from sources overseas. The largest block of NGOs who have been shackled - 794, or about 19 per cent of the total - are based in Tamil Nadu, ground zero of the NGO-led protests against the Kudankulam atomic power plant. The government has published the list of NGOs who have lost their Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration on the home ministry's web site. FCRA clearance is mandatory for an NGO to receive any contribution from overseas. The registrations were "canceled" because of the "violation" of FCRA between July 2012 and last week, the ministry has said. In March 2012, the government had cracked down on four NGOs for allegedly funding the massive protests that had paralysed work at the Kudankulam plant site in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district for weeks, and ordered a freeze on the bank accounts of some other NGOs. In November 2011, it had frozen the bank accounts of 21 NGOs, and barred another 60 from accepting overseas contributions. While FCRA clearance is mandatory for all NGOs that accept foreign contributions, the government makes public the names of organisations which receive over Rs 1 crore in overseas contributions in any financial year. According to the home ministry, there were 262 NGOs in this category in 2011-12, a majority of whom were based in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi. Together, these 262 NGOs received Rs 1,006.58 crore in foreign contributions, says the ministry web site. Major recipients of foreign contributions were SOS Children's Village, Delhi (Rs 67.93 crore), Missionaries of Charity, Kolkata (Rs 62.78 crore), AMG India International, Guntur (Rs 48.13 crore), Sadar Anjuman Ahmedia Quadian, Gurdaspur (Rs 39.22 crore) and Hyderabad Eye Institute, Hyderabad (Rs 33.47 crore). The number of NGOs whose FCRA clearance has been withdrawn over the past one month - 4,139 - is 9.5 per cent of the total 43,451 registered in India. The largest number of these NGOs are based, after Tamil Nadu, in Andhra Pradesh (670), followed by Kerala (450), West Bengal (384), Maharashtra (352), Delhi (299), Karnataka (296), Orissa (160), and Gujarat (158). Total foreign contributions to NGOs fell sharply in 2011-12 from Rs 3,463.71 crore in 2010-11. An analysis of foreign receipts by NGOs published in The Indian Express on January 4, 2012 reported that as many as 958 NGOs received contributions of over Rs 1 crore in 2010-11, a little less than four times the number of the next year.