Maharashtra government today conceded that it is unaware of the actual number of children staying in child welfare homes across the state.
"There are total 43 government-owned welfare homes and around 1,100 private but government-aided welfare homes. But, we have no knowledge about the total number of children staying in these homes," state Women and Child Welfare Minister Vidya Thakur said in the Legislative Council here.
"There was a government resolution of September 13, 2013, wherein these schools were asked to adopt a bio-metric system (to get exact data of the number of children living in welfare homes). But not a single school has done that till now. We currently give them Rs 950 per child. But, we cannot increase grants as we do not have the details of the number of children," Thakur said.
BJP's Shobhatai Fadnavis then asked the minister if the government has details of bogus beneficiaries (children) being shown by certain schools to illegally get government funds, and if there will be an inquiry done on such schools.
In her reply, Thakur said, "We do not have the details of these bogus beneficiaries. That is why we have been insisting on a bio-metric system. We will conduct an inquiry into the bogus cases.
