Orphanage staff use hot spoon to burn kids’ hands

TWO WOMEN attendants of a state-run orphanage at Karimnagar were arrested Wednesday afternoon and a case registered against them after they allegedly inflicted burn injuries on the hands of three orphaned children with a hot spoon. The children have been admitted to a government-run hospital.

Footage of a CCTV camera at Shishu Gruha purportedly shows the two attendants, Buchamma (45) and Padmaja (36) inflicting burn injuries on the children’s hands.

The footage shows Buchamma heating the spoon on the stove till it’s red. She then hands it over to Padmaja, who is earlierseenslappingthechildren, asking them to eat quickly. Padmaja takes the spoon and places it on the children’s hands. Asthechildrenscream,sheisseen warning them and threatening to repeat the act. The attendants reportedly wanted the children to finish their meals quickly so that they too could eat, wash the vessels and sleep.

District Collector M Neetu Kumar Prasad has suspended the two attendants and a third one who was not seen in the footage, but reportedly knew what was happening.

While the incident took place around 8pm on April 15, the three children—one girl and two boys—narrated the incident to a staff nurse and counsellor from the social welfare department only on Tuesday.

S Hari Prasad of Karimnagar’s Two Town Police Station said, “Initially, the attendants denied any wrongdoing. They said the children were playing with a gas lighter and accidentally injured themselves. But, when they were confronted with the CCTV footage, they confessed’’.

He added: “These children are below five and they were scared to talk. After I spent some time with them, they narrated what happened.’’

The orphanage is run by the Women and Child Welfare Department of the Telangana government. MINUTES AFTER the 50-wagon Jaldoot Express pulled into Latur railway station carrying 25 lakh litres of drinking water — enough to take care of the city’s daily needs — Kavita Kamble and her family became the first ones to receive a 200 litre barrel at their doorstep.

“I can’t believe the water has come from Miraj straight to our residence. It’s a lucky day for us — I was just stepping out to go for my daughter’s wedding,” said Kavita, 40, from Kranti Nagar.

The train had left Miraj in Sangli district, about 342 km away, at 10.55 pm Tuesday. After it reached Latur Wednesday morning, tankers made 450 trips to bring water to each household. Usually the tankers collect water from three nearby dams, which are also beginning to run dry. The train had previously made nine such trips with 10 wagons, carrying 5 lakh litres of water each time. The Indian Express was at Latur station Wednesday morning, when Jaldoot pulled in.

As Jaldoot arrives at Latur railway station, railway workers gather, connecting pipes to collect water. Twenty minutes later, the decanting process starts. The train has reached later than expected “because of three express trains that run on the section during the night”, explains

7.52 AM:

R K Sharma, senior divisional manager (operations), Solapur division of Central Railways. During the day, says Sharma, they have been running Jaldoot almost like a superfast train. “On one occasion last week, it reached in 6 hours-35 minutes, logging a speed of nearly 50 kmph — almost like superfast train. Today’s delay was a one-off thing,” says Sharma.

The ‘Jaldoot team’ of driver S B Khot, assistant loco pilot B G Kolekar and guard Sikandar Nabais head for the changing room. Regarding the delay, they all say: “No, no, kuch problem nahin hai.” Nabais says his family is excited he was on board the train carrying water to

8.10 AM:

Pradip Das Kavita was heading to her daughter’s wedding when the water tanker arrived.

Express A child who suffered burn injuries.