CHENNAI: The building licences of about 60 per cent of children homes in the city have lapsed and renewal is allegedly getting delayed due to official apathy. A majority of the 98 homes in the city—both private and government run — fear the worst because it is illegal to function without a licence. The building licence is one of the five legal mandates for a child care institution (CCI) or a children’s home as per the Juvenile Justice Act. This licence is predated and valid for a period of three years.
“When the expiration of the licence is nearing, we apply for a renewal. Appointed revenue officers are sent to the respective homes for inspection. However, they slow down the process of inspection or even fail to visit the premises. Officers take advantage of the fact that the licence is predated and delay issuing of our licence,” a founder of a children’s home in the North Zone alleged.
The child care institution groups also say that their licences are backdated by the revenue officials purposefully so as to go through the renewal process all over again should it expire. Owing to these issues, several institutions have been forced to shut down and have incurred huge losses.
“It had been almost a year and a half since we heard from the tahsildar’s office about the status of renewal of our licence. Upon enquiring, it was brought to our notice that our documents were apparently lost and we were told to resubmit them,” said a trustee of a home in the South Zone “Luckily, we had photocopies of the attested documents and submitted them. Only last month, we got our licence renewed,” the trustee added.
Meanwhile, several groups have written representations have been made by the CCI groups of all zones to the District Collector. Speaking to TNIE, Collector, Dr J Vijaya Rani said, “The pandemic slowed down the inspection in the last two years. If the CCI groups express grievances, we can definitely work something out.”