Seon Trust mismanaging Kokkada centre: AC report

A sharp dip in the strength of inmates reveals mismanagement of the daycare centre for endosulfan victims at Kokkada in Belthangady taluk by Seon Ashram, reveals the report by Puttur Assistant Commissioner H K Krishnamurthy to Deputy Commissioner.

The total strength has fallen from 35 to 12 at the centre, according to the submitted to the deputy commissioner on August 31.

The six-page report recommends a taluk-level committee comprising that the tahsildar and the taluk health officer, among others, be formed to monitor the day-to-day activities at the Kokkada centre. If there is no improvement in the overall management of the centre within a fortnight, the agency running the centre needs to be changed as per the government guidelines, it adds.

Following complaints of ill-treatment of the inmates by parents and Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja, former Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil had written to the Puttur assistant commissioner to visit the centre and submit a report. Krishnamurthy was also asked to verify the claims made by Seon Trust in its letter submitted to the District Health and Family Welfare Department recently.

The assistant commissioner had listed as many as 10 grievances of parents and the responses of Seon Trust. The report mentions that the Trust given the contract of running the daycare centres at Kokkada and Koila from June had not installed CCTV cameras. It also revealed that the centre had failed to take the parents of endosulfan victims into confidence.