Ranchi, Dec. 12: Bad news for good samaritans. A physical verification of NGOs being carried out by the state intelligence agencies has so far established that at least 13 out of the 500 units registered with the state are fake.

The matter came to light after the Union welfare ministry forwarded a list of NGOs to the state government requesting verification of the organisations, which had recently applied for central grants to execute welfare schemes in the rural and the more backward areas of the state.

The NGOs had further claimed that they were engaged in providing self-employment generation training in book binding, typing and shorthand for the uplift of the socially and the economically-backward people and were regularly organising camps in the rural areas.

A senior official said on condition of anonymity that in course of investigation carried out in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Palamau and Deoghar, it transpired that while a number of units either did not exist or even where signboards were found at the state addresses, their existence was only on paper with no activities worth the name.

Sources said since the creation of Jharkhand in 2000, there had been a massive spurt in the number of NGOs registering themselves under the Societies Registration Act in the state.

Sources said practically all the state departments had been flooded with proposals from these newly-formed NGOs demanding allotment of suitable ?social welfare schemes? to them at hefty sums.

In addition, complaints were also received by the home department that several NGOs were also acting as conduits for various extremist organisations operating in the state in either stashing away the crores of rupees raised every month as ?levy? from traders, contractors and even officials or in routing these illegally-raised sums in more profitable ventures.

Following these complaints, the state government has ordered the intelligence agencies to undertake, in the first phase, a physical verification of all NGOs registered with the state vis-a-vis the official address recorded in the original registration form.