MARGAO
Kidnapping of the two-month-old minor girl at the Margao railway station has brought to the fore the alleged system failure on the question of lodging the minor and her mother in a shelter home after the rescue.
NGO Street Providence founder Donald Fernandes claimed that the minor along with the mother were housed at the police station when they ought to have been lodged at a shelter home.
Margao police station in-charge PI Tulsidas Naik, however, pointed out that the mother-daughter duo was sent to a home at Nuvem after the NGO insisted that the police get the letter from the Department of Women and Child Development. PI Naik further claimed that the police have now approached the Children Welfare Committee to pass an order to house the duo in a shelter home.
Addressing the media outside the Margao police station, Street Providence founder Fernandes said the NGO has no problem in sheltering the duo as requested by the CWC. He, however, hastened to add that the Department of Women and Child Development should have given the letter to house the duo at shelter homes run by the NGO as that would open the department’s eyes how the NGO is running the shelters.
“We do not blame the police if the mother-daughter duo stayed at the police station. The police must have made the arrangements on humanitarian grounds. Our NGO will have no issue to take the duo in our shelter homes, but the department of WCD should understand the work put in by the NGO,” he said, adding that the provision of Rs 2,500 made by the department to look after the inmates is not viable and feasible.
Donald has hoped the Courts should take cognizance of the pathetic state of affairs to put the system in place on humanitarian grounds.
