‘Why couple ran shelter home despite no major funds in 3 years?’
DEORIA : The government provided no substantial funds to Girija Tripathi and her husband Mohan Tripathi in the past three years but still they preferred to operate their shelter home, Maa Vindhyavasini Mahila and Balika Sanrakshan Griha, a senior official of the Deoria administration said.
“This clearly suggested that the couple must be having some other interest in running the shelter home,” he said.
He said police personnel, as well as other administrative officials, too sent girls found abandoned in different cases to the couple’s shelter home as there was no other option for them. The only government shelter home in Deoria had a capacity for only 15 inmates and it was overcrowded with around two dozen inmates staying there, he said.
The official said the couple exploited the police and administration’s helplessness to wield their clout and easily admitted every girl and children sent to them. He said this was why the shelter home remained operational despite its licence having been cancelled by the state government.
Superintendent of police (SP) Deoria Rohan P Kanay said, “We are looking into how the girls were sent to this shelter home when its license was cancelled. However, initial inquiry suggested that most of the police station in-charges and administrative officials were not even aware that it was not a legal shelter home as it had remained operational legally for many years before its license was cancelled last year.”
Girija Tripathi used to run a stitching and embroidery centre under a tin shed at Rajla Bhujauli in Bhatni, also in Deoria, before she opened the shelter home in 1993 while her husband used to work as labourer in Baitalpur sugar mill, locals said.
“Earlier, the couple operated the shelter home in a two roomrented accommodation in some other locality in Deoria and shifted it to new rented accommodation on Station Road in 2009,” a police official said.
He said the couple’s elder daughter Kanak Lata worked as contractual employee in district probation office in Gorakhpur while younger daughter Kanchan Lata helped them in operating the shelter home and was designated as its superintendent. He said their son Pradeep Tripathi, a primary school teacher, stayed separately along with his wife and was not involved in the family business.