Expedite appointment of nodal officer for juvenile homes: HC

The Delhi High Court today directed the city government to expedite the process of appointing a nodal officer for coordination with the Public Works Department (PWD) on maintenance of infrastructure at juvenile observation homes.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Vipin Sanghi asked the Delhi government to submit a report, before the next date of hearing on January 30, informing the court about the steps taken by it on appointing a nodal officer.
It also asked the government's Woman and Child Development (WCD) Department to inform it about the steps it takes for creation of six new posts for dealing with the safety and and security at juvenile homes.

WCD Department has decided to create six new posts as its initial decision to appoint police personnel on deputation did not work out since the deputation was to be voluntary and only one officer had volunteered, while six were needed.
Advocate Zubeda Begum, appearing for the department, informed the court that while the modalities with respect to the deputation have been worked out, only one officer from Delhi Police had volunteered for the six posts that were created within WCD.
Earlier, WCD and Delhi Police had given a joint proposal for maintaining law and order at juvenile homes here and as per it, policemen would be sent on deputation to serve there.

She also submitted that the nodal officer to coordinate with PWD on infrastructure issues of juvenile homes is yet to be appointed even though a court had given direction on the issue in March this year.