High-end mobiles, watches, liquor bottle found in shelter home

NOIDA: A probe has been launched after a team of UP women’s commission found expensive items, including watches and high-end mobile phones, and alcohol bottles in the rooms of girls staying in an NGO-run shelter home in Noida’s Sector 12.
Sai Kripa Balika Gruh, the NGO, however, claimed that the expensive items were gifts from patrons.

The inpection of the shelter home, Sai Kripa Balika Gruh, which houses girls aged two to 18 years, was carried out by a team on Wednesday. The team has submitted its report to district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida city magistrate as well as the UP women’s commission.

“We inspected Sai Kripa Balika Gruh on Wednesday. While there were no photographs on documents of girls from ages two to 10 years, I’d asked to inquire into child welfare committee (CWC) permission.

“We also found expensive watches, perfume bottles, sunglasses, a bottle of whisky, branded clothes in the cupboards,” Sushma Singh, the commission’s vice president, told TOI on Thursday.

The NGO running the shelter home has, however, said that the expensive watches and branded clothes were donations from patrons. “People believe in us, therefore they support us. We get no help from the government. When women’s commission members came, they searched the cupboards. The clothes they found were all donated. We also buy clothes for the girls for their birthdays and weddings. As for the bottles they found, the girls create decorated items from waste here and these bottles are used for the craft work,” said NGO head Anjana Rajgopal.

Vimla Batham, president of the Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Women, said, “We will wait for the reports of city magistrate and take action accordingly.”