14 HIV positive girls shifted from NGO-run shelter home

The girls, all HIV positive, were shifted from the shelter home being run by the NGO in Ghuru village near here for allegedly failing to fulfil conditions required for operating such residential facilities, Prashant Agrawal, Bilaspur Superintendent of Police (SP), said. The shifting was done by personnel of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), the Women and Child Development (WCD) department and police, during which they had to face opposition by office-bearers of the facility and some others, he said.

Fourteen HIV positive girls were on Monday shifted from an NGO-run shelter home in Chhattisgarhs Bilaspur to government-operated facilities, amid resistance by office-bearers of the organisation, officials said. The girls, all HIV positive, were shifted from the shelter home being run by the NGO in Ghuru village near here for allegedly failing to fulfil conditions required for operating such residential facilities, Prashant Agrawal, Bilaspur Superintendent of Police (SP), said.

The shifting was done by personnel of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), the Women and Child Development (WCD) department and police, during which they had to face opposition by office-bearers of the facility and some others, he said. Amid the opposition, police detained a social activist, Priyanka Shukla, who was allegedly trying to disrupt the process, the SP said.

District Programme Officer (DPO) of the WCD department, Suresh Singh, said of the 14 girls, four belong to Bilaspur district, three each to Raipur, Kabirdham and Jajngir-Champa districts while one is from Raigarh. All the girls were shifted to state-run children shelter homes in their respective districts by the government personnel, Singh added.

The shelter home operator was issued notice last month to shift all inmates to government facilities as the organisation does not fulfil rules and regulations for running such facility, he said. Meanwhile, the operator of the private shelter home, Sanjeev Khattar, claimed he was not served any notice by the WCD department before taking the action on Monday which, he alleged, was done by police with high handedness.

Last year, the CWC, Bilaspur, had directed to shift the girls following which I had challenged their decision in the Chhattisgarh High Court. "I had contended in the petition before HC that the organisation meets all the required standards for operating the facility.

'Later, the HC had ordered the organisation to represent the case before the Collector, Khattar said. On March 16 this year, the Bilaspur Collector had served notice to Khattar, who presented his case before him.

Since then, he was not informed about any further development in the matter, he claimed. On Monday, suddenly the WCD team, accompanied by police, "forcefully" shifted the inmates from his shelter home to other places, he alleged.

Khattar claimed the police personnel dragged children out of the shelter homen.