Urban News

Times of India 24.07.2009

CHENNAI: In a grand gesture, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Thursday announced that he would donate his house in the centre of Chennai to run a free hospital for the poor after his and his wife’s lifetime. The elegant two-storeyed mansion on 4th Street, Gopalapuram — which the CM described as a “street house” — has been his residence for over four decades. “I have the consent of my wife and children for this (donating),” Karunanidhi said.

At a function organised to roll out the Rs 517-crore state health insurance scheme, the Kalaignar Insurance Scheme for life-saving treatment for one crore poor families, the CM said the house would be entrusted either with the state government or the Kalaignar Charitable Trust to run a hospital in the name of his parents Anjugam and Muthuvel.

The market value of the house, registered in the names of his children in 1968, is said to be Rs 8 crore.

Karunanidhi’s decision to give away his property to charity recalled similar gestures in the past by other Dravidian leaders. Periyar E V Ramasamy bequeathed his houses and properties in Erode and Chennai to a trust to propagate his ideals. MGR left a portion of his estate in Ramavaram to run a school and home for the deaf and speech-impaired.

Delivering an emotional speech, the CM said: “All those who are in politics in the state are aware that there is not even sufficient space in my house for local visitors and foreign dignitaries...”

He said it was the only property he had acquired after he became the chief minister, apart from a 14-acre plot in Kattur near Tiruvarur. “I may be the only chief minister in India not owning a bungalow but living in a street house. In the past when I was the CM, I did not approve of the idea of shifting to a big government bungalow,” he said.

Some alterations have been made to the nearly 50-year-old structure over the years. Some of its features now bear an Art Deco look. An elevator was installed inside some years ago after Karunanidhi’s knees began troubling him.

The Gopal-apuram house is where four of his children including Stalin and Azhagiri grew up. They continued living there with their families even after marriage. They have moved out into their own homes over the last two decades.

CHENNAI: The social welfare department has still not used funds raised for rehabilitation of 45,000 street children in September 2002, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has said.

The report says the government raised Rs 42.93 lakh through a raffle for rehabilitation of street children in six corporations, but Rs 38.19 lakh remained unutilised until April 2008. Only Rs 4.74 lakh was paid to Madras University's criminology department to conduct a survey on street children. The study was conducted but none of the recommendations were carried out.

This is one of the instances cited in report covering the period 2003-04 to 2007-08 on the functioning of the social welfare and nutritious meal programme department. From pointing out infrastructure and budgetary issues to shortcomings of juvenile justice boards (JJBs) and child welfare committees (CWCs), the report details deficiencies in child protection in the state.

The report says there are only eight JJBs and 18 CWCs in the state, despite the Juvenile Justice Act's requirement of a JJB and a CWC in each of the 30 districts in Tamil Nadu. Children in conflict with law are produced before JJBs, and based on its enquiry, sent back home or to a special home for rehabilitation. Children in need of care and protection appear before CWCs, which conduct enquiries and either reunite the children with their families or send them to government homes. Social defence commissioner Jayashree Raghunandan says the government has to take the decision to form more JJBs and that proposals in this regard have been forwarded to the authorities.

Vidya Reddy of Tulir Centre for Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse, however, says there is dearth of people trained in child protection and child rights. "There is a backlog in CWCs and JJBs because there are not enough people to handle cases. There are simply no qualified people to take up this work. It is also a reflection on our education system that does not pay attention to child rights," she says.

CAG also says orphanages under the social welfare directorate have not been registered under the act. "The main problem is that the state government has not framed the rules for the implementation of the amended Juvenile Justice Act, 2006," says Reddy. The report also makes this point.

The report indicts the government for not separating children in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection, saying that mixing them up exposes innocent children to criminal elements. However, Raghunandan says the children have been separated. "In no district are children in conflict with law kept in the same place as children in need of care and protection. They have all been shifted and separated," she says. "Work on all issues raised in the report has been initiated or completed," she added.

Another problem the report points out is the shortage of probation officers, teachers and other staff at observation homes, special homes, orphanages and other centres. An official of the social welfare directorate said they were concerned about the issues raised by the report and proposals to resolve them were in the pipeline. "The integrated child protection scheme that is to be launched soon will also solve many of the problems," she said.