PATNA: The Bihar government has cancelled its decision to hand over shelter homes in the state to 50 newly-selected NGOs, and drawn up an elaborate plan to run these facilities directly by appointing nearly 300 employees in the next three months.
The 50 NGOs were picked by the social welfare department after irregularities in the functioning of shelter homes came to the surface in the social audit by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in May. “With the government having decided to run these facilities on its own, the selection of the NGOs was scrapped,” said a senior official of the department on Tuesday.
Days after ten people were arrested for the horrific sexual exploitation of minor girls lodged at a state-funded shelter home run by an NGO in Muzaffarpur, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that the government would directly run these facilities through its own employees and in buildings owned or rented by the government.
An action plan prepared by the social welfare department to take over all the 110 shelter homes of different kinds in the state was recently approved by chief secretary Deepak Kumar, said sources. “The task of ensuring proper infrastructure at all the shelter homes and appointing nearly 300 employees would be completed in the next three months. The action plan will be sent for approval by the state cabinet shortly,” said a senior official of the social welfare department. NGOs currently running the facilities would continue to do so for the next three months, he added.
Sources said the department has started looking for premises in each of Bihar’s 38 districts to run the shelter homes. “These buildings would be taken on rent. A recruitment agency will be given the task of supplying the staff needed. Several new posts have also been created,” said an official.