Officials party with child adoption funds
24 January 2011
Officials party with child adoption funds
January 24th, 2011
Jan. 23: The social welfare department here chose to conduct a two-day seminar on child adoption only to use up the funds provided by the Union government before the end of March. The seminar concluded on Friday with sumptuous food and high rhetoric but nothing else by way of serious discussion as no senior social welfare official was present.
Tamil Nadu social welfare minister Geetha Jeevan chose to skip the event. According to official sources, the funds provided by the Central Adoption Resources Agency (CARA) in Delhi, which works under the Union women and child development ministry, to promote adoption of abandoned babies among common people were utilised for the gala seminar held in Anna Institute of Management.
“We had Rs 2 lakh surplus funds and since we could not divert the allocation to any other work, we decided to use the money for this seminar,” a senior officer admitted.
The officer maintained that all the district social welfare officers were invited to participate in the seminar on child adoption to update themselves about the procedures in the adoption of orphan children.
The officer maintained that all the district social welfare officers were invited to participate in the seminar on child adoption to update themselves about the procedures in the adoption of orphan children.
“We were served great food and had a real feast through the two days. And we got an expensive file-folder with all sorts of government publicity papers. That’s about all,” said one of the participants, requesting anonymity.