This Article is From Aug 01, 2018

On Shelter Home Rapes, Bihar Governor Writes To Nitish Kumar

Mr Malik has also written to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Chief Justice of the Patna High Court Rajendra Menon

On Shelter Home Rapes, Bihar Governor Writes To Nitish Kumar

Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik also emphasized the need for a social audit of shelter homes.

Patna:

Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik has written to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, terming the alleged sexual abuse of girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur as "heart-rending" and suggested measures to prevent recurrence. 

Sources say that the governor has called for trial of cases relating to harassment of girls, boys and women living in state-funded homes in fast track courts.

Mr Malik has also written to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Chief Justice of the Patna High Court Rajendra Menon in this regard.

The governor has, however, praised the state government for its quick action in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case and its decision to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), sources said.

In his second letter to the chief minister, Mr Malik has called for immediate and intensive probe into reports of mismanagement of other such short stay homes that have appeared in the media of late and a mechanism for their continued monitoring, they said.

Mr Malik has also emphasize the need for developing an institutional mechanism which ensures that social audit, by competent institutions, of these shelter homes takes place on a permanent basis, the sources said.

He has also called for implementation of recommendations of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai in this regard, they said.

The governor has asked the chief minister, whom he called an "efficient administrator" and a popular leader known for taking initiative in such matters, to invite suggestions from the intelligentsia, the sources added.

 The matter had come to light earlier this year when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by TISS.

The audit report stated that many girls at the shelter home had complained of sexual abuse. A special investigation team was formed to probe the complaints.

The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani.
 

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