Lucknow, May 11 The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government over the repeated delays in the release of funds to child care institutions under Mission Vatsalya, and observed that issues concerning children's welfare require a permanent and time-bound mechanism instead of ad hoc solutions.
A division bench of Justices Rajan Roy and Jaspreet Singh made the observations while hearing a PIL filed by Anoop Gupta on the welfare of children in shelter homes that was pending since 2008.
According to the order issued on May 8, the matter has been listed for further hearing on May 27.
During the hearing, the state government informed the court that the release of Rs 1 crore in assistance to the Drishti Samajik Sansthan could only be processed after a meeting of the project approval board.
The court was told that the meeting, which was earlier scheduled for April 27, had been deferred to May 12.
The bench was also informed that a new financial arrangement had been introduced under the Sparsh scheme.
Earlier, payments were routed through a centralised cyber treasury system at the national level, which allegedly led to practical difficulties, the counsel for the state government said.
Under the revised arrangement, payments are proposed to be made at the district level, though approval for the current financial year depends on the project approval board meeting, the court was told.
Taking exception to the delay, the bench observed that since the financial year commenced on April 1, the board meeting ought to have been held before that date.
The court said if welfare funds meant for children were not released in time, the very objective of the scheme would stand defeated.
It also observed that the institution's management was allegedly forced to borrow money from the market to continue caring for children and that lenders were now unwilling to provide further financial assistance.
The court directed the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development to ensure that meetings of the project approval board are held in advance in future to avoid delays in disbursal of funds meant for child welfare institutions.
