Days after a child trafficking racket was busted in Jalpaiguri, the district administration has come under fire from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) over alleged procedural lapses in the functioning of the district child protection committee.
A two-member team of the NCPCR, which comprised Priyank Kanungo and Yashwant Jain, pointed to how the committee was ad-hoc and questioned “how such a committee could be allowed to function for the last two years.” The officials, who visited four childcare homes during a two-day visit to Jalpaiguri, have now sought information about the District Magistrate under whom the committee was formed.
District Magistrate (Jalpaiguri) Rachna Bhagat, meanwhile, told The Hindu that she was “not aware of the matter” and that it would be “premature to comment now”.
‘Insensitive officials’
The NCPCR team also expressed displeasure over the condition of the four childcare homes in Jalpaiguri. Criticising the officials responsible for running these, the team accused them of “being insensitive towards children.”
“They [childcare home authorities] are inexperienced and insensitive towards children. Since the area is considered as the gateway to the Northeast, the authorities should be much more sensitive,” they said.
Earlier, two government officials — District Child Protection Officer (Jalpaiguri) Sasmita Ghosh and DCPO (Darjeeling) Mrinal Ghosh — were arrested by the State’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for their alleged involvement in a child trafficking racket.
The CID had also arrested the owner of a childcare home, Chandana Chakraborty, and one of her associates.
Seven arrested
So far, seven persons have been arrested in connection with this case, one of whom is Juhi Chowdhury, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) women wing in the State.
The party, instead, has accused the Trinamool Congress government of using the CID as a “weapon to malign the BJP”.
