Kolkata NGO seeks permission to bring back kids from Oslo

 A Kolkata-based NGO has appealed to External Affairs Minister S M Krishna to assist it in bringing back to India the two children who are in the midst of a custody row in Norway.

The NGO, India's Smile, which had earlier urged the government to bring back Abhigyan (3) and Aishwaraya (1), children of Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, residing in Oslo, said it was willing to bear all expenses in bringing them up till they attained the age of 18.

Secretary trustee of the NGO, Rajeev Sarkar told PTI here that it was his organisation which had first alerted the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs about the plight of the two children in Oslo on December 19 last year.

He claimed that thereafter M K Pande, the Ministry's under secretary, had contacted him and informed him that the government would move in the matter under the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

The children were taken away by Norway's Stavanger Child Welfare Services last May on grounds of 'emotional disconnect' and put in foster care. Sarkar said his NGO had come to know from one of the relatives of the children's grandfather, Monotosh Chakraborty, that Sagarika, the mother of the children would return to India in a day or two following "sharp differences" with her husband in Oslo.

The mobile phone of Monotosh Chakraborty, the maternal grandfather, was found switched off when this reporter tried to contact them.

Sarkar said in a letter to Krishna that it would abide by all terms and conditions put by the Government of India so that the children could be kept in its custody or that of the government.

"If at all, we are unable to take custody of the two minor children under our custody or if any problems creep in, they will be brought up under the custody of the Government of India," he told PTI here.

He said that his NGO under no circumstances would hand over the two Indian children to the Norwegian child welfare authorities.

For this, he said, his organisation was willing to sign any reasonable agreement or terms and conditions.

Copies of the letter were also sent to the President, the Prime Minister, the Governor and the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the Indian embassy in Norway, the Norwegian embassy in Delhi and the Norwegian Childcare Centre, Barnevarne, he said.

India has put on hold the visit of a senior official to Norway in connection with the NRI children custody row and was awaiting an update from its mission there amid reports of differences between the parents.

Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur has said that the Central government has tried its best to bring the children home so that they had a future in the country.