Puri: In the wake of alleged sexual harassment of inmates at Good News India’s Dream Centre shelter house in Dhenkanal district, the Puri district administration Tuesday inspected a shelter house managed by the entity in the Holy City.
The inspection was carried out at the behest of District Collector Jyoti Prakash Das who had sought a report on the shelter house at Penthakata.
A team from the district child welfare committee (CWC) comprising its chairman Mahaveer Rudra Narayan Sahu and members Ramashankar Patra, Sucheta Das, Shaktipada Mishra and Dipti Das conducted the inspection which continued for two hours.
CWC chairman said the shelter house has 81 girl inmates, including several minor ones. “We have recorded the statements of all the girls. No one has said anything negative on the shelter house,” he said.
According to sources, the caretaker of the shelter house said that the hostel facilities were provided to girls against collection of charges. However, the caretaker could not produce any proof to substantiate the claim. “The caretaker has sought two days’ time to submit documents to establish that they are running a hostel and not a shelter house. We will submit our report to the Collector after receiving all documents from the caretaker,” said the CWC chairman.
The Good News India had set up a shelter house at Penthakata here in 2007, but it was closed by an order of the district administration last year after it was found that some of the girl inmates belonged to well off families. All the 76 inmates of the shelter house were handed over to their respective families. However, the agency had set up another shelter house in the locality later.
