Jaipur, June 23: Many irregularities were found during the recent visit of the State Women Commission team to the ashram of Daati Maharaj in Pali, its chief said on Saturday.
Rajasthan Women's Commission chairperson Suman Sharma told IANS that all rules and regulations were being breached in the school and colleges being run in the Pali ashram. While the institution's registration has not been renewed since last three years, the records of female students, staying there, fails to give any details as to where these girls belong to, she said.
Sharma also said that there were no records to ascertain the correct number of girls in the ashram, with only names of hundreds of these girls jotted down in a note book.
"Surprisingly, their fathers' name is different in this copy while the affidavit says something else. Also, the age-related information looks fake," she said.
"When my team went to ashram, we met two people - one of whom introduced himself as principal while the other introduced himself as cashier. When they were asked to produce NOC of the Education Department, they had no clue about it. Nothing was clear from records that from where the orphan girls had come and since when are they staying here. The school, college and hostel had no records," said Sharma.
She also said that the ashram's employees were not cooperative.
"The register they showed had poor/incomplete records of enrolment... There were no clues as to when the girls passed out and in which class and in which year. Some unclear handwritten notes were found which showed different records in terms of their native place, father's name and other such details. We were informed that a few girls have gone to their homes on summer education," said Sharma.
"We were informed that there were 151 girls, but our team found 253 girls on the premises. They were tribal girls belonging to Godhra and Udaipur region. They were too scared to talk to our team and gave different versions. At one time, they said they had come to ashram 15 days back, while on the other time, they said it was some 30 days. Their changing versions raised doubts amongst our team members," she added.
Sharma said that subsequently in view of the safety and security of these girls, the Commission had written to the Superintendent of Police requesting him to ensure security of these girls.
A letter was written to the District Collector asking him why no action has been taken to check the records in this ashram, while the Department of Social Justice was asked to to take these girls under their custody.
"We have sent records of our findings to respective departments and are awaiting a reply in next three days after which we will decide our future course of action," Sharma added.
Meanwhile, one of the team members of the commission said that there are chances of human trafficking taking place as no proper records of girls going out and coming into the ashram have been maintained. "However, we will explore this angle later as our present priority is to ensure proper safety of these innocent girls," she added.
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Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.