Bihar cancels selection of 50 NGOs for running shelter homes
Patna, Aug 21 : Bihar has cancelled the selection of 50 NGOs for running shelter homes across the state and announced that the government will run them instead, an official said on Tuesday.
The Social Welfare Department will replace the non-government organisations (NGOs) in running all such short stay homes in the state, he added.
The state government took the decision keeping in view the over 30 rape cases and death of two women inmates at the Muzaffarpur home.
The Muzaffarpur horror came to the fore following a social audit by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) from Mumbai that pointed at the sorry state of shelter homes run by NGOs in Bihar.
"The government has cancelled NGOs selected recently for running the shelter homes. The Social Welfare Department will take over the management in the next three months," the department official said.
Till then the NGOs will continue to run these shelter homes. Earlier in August, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced this. Nearly 100 NGOs continue to run such homes across the state.
A 100-page report by TISS had stated that sexual abuse -- varying in forms and degrees -- was prevalent in almost all shelter homes in Bihar.The audit was commissioned by the state government in 2017.
It was the TISS report that pointed a finger at Balika Grih in Muzaffarpur run by Brajesh Thakur where 34 of the 41 minor girls housed were raped.
Thakur was named the main accused, arrested and jailed along with nine others. State Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma had to resign.
The Patna High Court is monitoring the Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the incident.
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Death toll from Israeli strikes in northeast Lebanon rises from 8 to 24, Lebanese news agency says
Deir al-Balah, Nov 1: Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 24 people in northeastern Lebanon, the country's news agency said, raising the death toll from eight there.
It was the latest deadly toll in the area since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah escalated last month.
Israel's military has said that its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah's military infrastructure.
Lebanon's state National news Agency reported four airstrikes in different villages across country's northeast, saying rescuers were still searching for survivors in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, from the rubble of a targeted house.
Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region in Baalbek-Hermel region, said that 60,000 people have already fled their homes in the area due to Israeli bombardment.
