The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chief Priyank Kanoongo on Saturday slammed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the issue of rehabilitation of homeless children in the national capital.
Kanoongo's comments came after Kejriwal's announcement of Rs 10 crore allocation in Delhi Budget 2022-23 for the rehabilitation of children living on the road and traffic signal.
Slamming Kejriwal over his announcement, Kanoongo said, "Even after repeated orders of Supreme Court since November, only 1800 children living on the street have been brought under the process of rehabilitation due to latency of Delhi Government.
"Two years ago we had submitted the information of 73,000 children living on the street but not a single child from that list has been rehabilitated. Delhi Government also used to remain absent from the review meeting held for this purpose," he said.
Soon after the Budget was presented in the Delhi assembly, Kejriwal Tweeted a video in which he said, "Rs 10 cr has been allocated for the construction of the residential state of the art facility school for homeless children. They need emotional touch. So far, police just used to send them to shelter houses from there they used to run away."
Reacting to the 'Running away from shelter house' statement, NCPCR chief said, "The acceptance of Chief Minister in the public domain that children in the rehabilitation centres are not looked after properly, forcing children to run away from the shelter homes should be taken seriously."
"A notice has been issued to the government over this issue seeking clarification and action taken report," he said.
Delhi Finance Minister Sisodia presented a budget of Rs. 75,800 cr for the year 2022-23. Last year the budget which he presented was of Rs 69,000 cr.
( With inputs from ANI )
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