Bihar government decides to take over all shelter homes from NGOs; High Court starts monitoring CBI probe

PATNA: The Bihar government will take over the functioning of all shelter homes in the state from the control of the NGOs in a phased manner, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday.

Rattled by the shocking revelations about the sexual abuse of minor girls residing at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur for years, the government held a number of meetings on how to ensure proper functioning of the shelter homes and decided to stop handing them over to the NGOs.

“We thought about the role of the NGOs. Why should they be given such responsibility? I would like to let you know today that we have taken an in-principle decision to keep them out from running shelter homes,” said Kumar at the end of his weekly ‘Lok Samvad’ programme.

“The state government will take this responsibility. We will take control of the district-level shelters homes in a phased manner,” he added.

Kumar said since there is a statutory provision that the state must provide protection to needy people at shelter homes, the state government will invest funds to build such facilities and run them by government employees.

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Physical and sexual abuse of the inmates at several shelter homes in Bihar had come to light in May in a social audit conducted by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) at the behest of the state’s NDA government. At least 34 minor girls were allegedly raped frequently at the Muzaffarpur shelter home. Ten people have so far been arrested and the case is now under probe by CBI. The state government placed under suspension 13 officials of the social welfare department on Sunday.

In a significant development, Patna High Court on Monday accepted the state government’s request to monitor the investigation by CBI into the Muzaffarpur sex scandal and ensure its speedy trial by appointing a special judge.

The Opposition parties, who accuse the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government of shielding those involved in the case, had been seeking regular monitoring of the CBI probe by the high court.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad also directed CBI to submit details of the ongoing probe to the court. The matter was posted for further hearing two weeks later.