Panel holds staff guilty in deaths of 4 kids in UP shelter home

Lucknow, March 5 Following the death of four infants in Lucknow's child shelter home (Rajkiya Bal Grih), the audit report filed by divisional commissioner Roshan Jacob and her team has found multiple lacunae and gross negligence on the part of Child Welfare Committee chairperson and the staff in the operation of the child shelter home.

The report submitted to the women and child welfare department has recommended steps to prevent such deaths in future.

Last month, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court had asked the state government to file an affidavit apprising it of the reasons for the death of four children at the Rajkiya Bal Grih and steps taken to ensure proper care of inmates and to prevent such incidents in future.

The report said that WCD should consider removing Lucknow CWC chairperson, as he failed to take decisions on files in a timely manner which were related to minors and allegedly made arbitrary changes in the files.

Further, he failed to unite rescued children with their families even after knowing the address of their residence or their parents.

Because of this, children were unnecessarily kept in the shelter home leading to overcrowding, which also affected their care.

The report said that the shelter home doctor (Dr Sudarshan Singh) for the last 15 years was giving the same medical consultation for every child even though their symptoms were different.

If Dr Singh had given proper treatment to infants, their recovery could have been better. The report recommends removal of Dr Singh immediately.

The report also recommends that the health department should constitute a committee for evaluation of work efficiency of the nurses posted in the shelter home. Only those nurses who are skilled and efficient should be deployed.

After observing the CCTV cameras installed at the shelter home, the audit team found that several infants were fed milk from the same bottle, which could have increased the chances of infection.

The panel has recommended removing such insensitive maids who were risking the lives of children.

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