Srinagar, 02-Dec: Acting swiftly on the reports of alleged ‘illegal adoption’ and ‘sale’ of Covid orphans, Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday evening lodged an FIR at Pampore Police Station against the alleged culprits.Taking serious note of the news report regarding alleged illegal adoption and sale of Covid orphans of Kashmir, Mission Director ICPS has directed the concerned authorities and FIR has been lodged at Police Station Pampore against the alleged culprits.Besides, Secretary, Social Welfare Department, Sheetal Nanda has taken up the issue with IGP, Kashmir, in order to ensure immediate action in the matter and initiate legal course of action under relevant laws, an official handout said.In addition, Mission Director, ICPS J&K, Shabnam Kamili, has issued instant orders to Child Welfare Committees “to meet COVID orphans personally which have already been identified by the department and uploaded on different online portals of Government of India and submit a report to the Directorate of ICPS within a day’s time”.”Further, fact finding committees were also constituted for Jammu and Kashmir divisions in order to ascertain the number of orphans/COVID orphans and their well-being in all the districts of J&K, ” added the statement.Meanwhile, Police along with the civil administration on Thursday sealed office of NGO, allegedly involved in sale.An official said that office of Global Welfare Charitable Trust in Samboora area of Pampore in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district was raided by team of Police and Tehsil administration. Besides office, some important documents were seized as well.When tried to get more official confirmation from SSP Awantipora on the arrests made, he replied ‘I am busy in a meeting’Earlier in the report, a person Asrar Amin who runs an NGO in Kashmir called Global Welfare Charitable Trust, which claims to be working for children and family welfare.When reporters probed him at a hotel in Delhi, he offered Covid orphans under his care for Rs 75,000 a child.An assessment by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) suggests around 3,620 children lost both their parents, some 26,176 lost one of them and 274 children have been abandoned in the country since the pandemic struck.(CNS)
