Jupinderjit Singh
Chandigarh, June 29
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, tabled in the Vidhan Sabha today, stated it had been found that due to the failure of the state government to provide suitable land, children’s homes and observation homes could not be established in the state even six years after the release of assistance by the Centre.
Stressing that vulnerable children were being denied access to care and rehabilitation, it has recommended that the state government should allot suitable land and provide adequate funds for the establishment of the children’s homes and observation homes in the state.
The case pertains to the SAD-BJP tenure from 2012 to 2017, which was not properly followed up by the Congress government from 2017 to 2022.
The audit report revealed that a children’s home for girls at Jalandhar, having a capacity of 150 and catering to the entire state, and an observation home for boys, having a capacity of 50 at Hoshiarpur and catering to seven districts, were overcrowded during the 2015-2020 period. Further, since the existing children’s/observation homes were catering to many districts in the state, children/inmates had to travel from far-off places to the existing homes for care and rehabilitation.
CAG found that there were six children’s homes and four observation homes in the state in 2014. The Centre approved the establishment of additional five children’s homes and two observation homes in different districts.
However, records revealed that at the time of approval of the proposal and release of the grant-in-aid by the Centre (October 2014), suitable land was not available with the department for the construction of the homes in any of the seven districts.
The government released the central share of Rs 4.66 crore, which was withdrawn by the department in June 2016 and kept in a savings bank account in contravention of the Punjab Financial Rules. However, the state share of Rs 1.55 crore was not released.
Children’s homes not built despite grant from Centre
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