Tainted homes get crores in grants again

Tainted homes get crores in grants again

REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

85 shelter homes, which were granted Rs 35 cr in March this year, get a further Rs 26 cr, despite irregularities.

A total of 85 children’s shelter homes against which several irregularities were found earlier this year have been granted Rs 26 crore by the state government’s Women and Child Development Commissionerate.

There are 383 children’s shelter homes across the state out of which 350 are run by various NGOs and the rest are run by the state government. After the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015 came into effect, all these 350 shelter homes were shut down in April 2016 as they did not meet the criteria laid down under the Act, such as they should have a minimum area of 1,400 square metre and children with one parent could not be admitted in such a home, even if the mother is in flesh trade or the father is alcoholic or abusive.

However, some officials in the Commissionerate conspired with some unscrupulous shelter home trustees and distributed nearly Rs 35 crore grant to the homes in March this year. After objections were raised by the organisation representing shelter homes called Balvikas Sansthachalak and Karmachari Sanghatna (BSKS), then women and child development commissioner Lahu Mali asked deputy commissioners of the respective revenue divisions to conduct an inquiry.

Out of the 85 institutions, which received the grant, 20 were examined by the deputy commissioners and their reports were submitted to the Commissionerate in June. These deputy commissioners found serious lacunae in the functioning of these institutions. They found that there were no children on the campus, records were not updated for over two years, more than one institution was being run from the same address, no biometric machines, inadequate and dirty toilets, no approved child care plan, etc.

Shivaji Joshi, president of BSKS, said, “Instead of taking action against the corrupt officials and unscrupulous trustees of shelter homes, the Commissionerate again disbursed Rs 26 crore to these institutions on November 3. After we got a whiff of what was happening in the Commissionerate, we met Women and Child Development Commissioner Hrishikesh Yashod and gave him a memorandum on November 2. Despite this, crores were disbursed to these institutions the next day.”

Joshi further alleged that nearly a quarter of this amount was disbursed to institutions in the home district of Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde. “This can’t be a coincidence,” he said.

A message sent to Yashod remained unanswered till the time of going to press. Phone calls and text messages sent to Munde also remained unanswered.

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