By Jaideep Sarin, IANS,
Chandigarh: First, the scandal of sexual abuse and tormenting of inmates at a shelter home in Rohtak, and now statewide protests over power and water shortage – there is no end to the Haryana government’s woes this summer.
Although the chief minister wants everyone, particularly the media, to believe that his government is on top of the situation in the state, a look at events of recent weeks indicates otherwise.
Facing electricity and water shortage, last week people took to streets, blocked highways and clashed with police in various towns of Haryana, including Yamunanagar, Jind, Rohtak and Gurgaon, the industrial hub near the national capital.
Years of unabated physical and mental torture of inmates at Apna Ghar, the shelter home for women and children run by NGO Bharat Vikas Sangh in Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s hometown, raises serious concerns on the efficacy of administrative machinery in the state.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), which raided Apna Ghar premises May 9 and rescued over 100 inmates, has severely criticised the role of district administration in monitoring the activities at the centre.
In fact, Jaswanti Devi, the in-charge of Apna Ghar, was given the Indira Gandhi Nari Shakti award earlier this year for her “commendable work”. Her NGO was getting hefty grants from the state agencies for its ‘work’. The government now denies having any knowledge about the illegal activities at the shelter home.
Devi, who flaunted her access to political, bureaucratic and police bosses, was finally arrested May this year along with her son-in-law Jai Bhagwan and charged with serious charges of rape, molestation, illegal confinement, criminal conspiracy and immoral trafficking.
“How can we know what is going on inside some one’s house? When the matter came to our notice, we took immediate action,” Hooda told reporters here, defending the role of the local administration and the government.
“The Hooda government was giving grants and awards to this scandalous NGO. Was all this being done without monitoring what the organisation and its people were doing? Did anyone talk to the inmates earlier?” the head of another Rohtak-based NGO asked.
In yet another incident this week, police booked the manager of a Rohtak-based institute for mentally challenged for allegedly sodomising a 22-year-old youth.
Last month, a girl student from an all-women university near Sonipat was taken away and gang-raped by four youths.
“The law and order in the state has completely collapsed,” opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Ajay Singh Chautala said.
Hooda, however, remains unfazed, blaming the opposition for raking up issues.
(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at [email protected])