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68 children rescued

BERHAMPUR: Some miscreants have started to con poor parents in extreme rural areas through the lure of providing good education to their small children. On Monday the Rayagada district administration rescued 68 children from the premises of a temple, who had been left there to their fate by the persons who had brought them from Gajapati district.

All these children were between the ages of six to 12 years. They had been collected from different remote areas of Gajapati district by an NGO. According to sources and NGO named Careed and its director, Ranjan Sobha Nayak were involved in bringing these small children to Rayagada from their homes in Gajapati district about a month back.

This NGO has been registered at Khariguda village in Mohana block of Gajapati district.

Through the lure of providing free education, boarding and lodging to the children for ten years, the activists of the NGO had been able to collect the children from poor families. But some parents also alleged that Rs. 2,500 was collected from the parents.

Nayak had brought 122 children to Rayagada from Gajapati district last month. He had kept the children in the Ashok Kalyan Mandap managed by the local municipality on June 19. Then he had searched for a cheaper location.

He could locate the community hall of a Mangala temple.

With his sweet talk he could persuade the management of the temple to take care of the children and also paid Rs. 4,000 to arrange food for the children. But after a few days he vanished.

When the children were not taken back even after three weeks, the temple management informed the administration.

The team of administrative officials led by the Rayagada Sub Collector, D.Jagannatham reached there and located 68 children in it who were in a very bad condition due to lack of proper care. Many of them were suffering from fever and diarrhea.

They were admitted in the local hospital. After investigation Mr. Jagannathan informed newsmen that Ranjan had brought 122 children from Gajapati.

Parents of some of the children had tracked them down and had already taken their wards from the temple.

As immediate measure the administration provided funds from the Red Cross Society to the Mangala temple administration to continue with the provision of food to the children.

The Gajapati district administration was contacted to find out the whereabouts of parents of the 68 rescued children.

Till now addresses of 43 of these children had bee ascertained. But there is no trace of the man who could con these small children.

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