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Homeless children wait for reopening of orphanage

BERHAMPUR: About 140 orphans wait for the day when their torched orphanage at Muniguda in Rayagada district would again be ready to provide them much needed shelter.

On Aug 25 the riots in Kandhamnal district had spilled over to Muniguda area of Rayagada district. Miscreants had resorted to large scale arson.

Among the victims of this communal flare up at Muniguda were the orphanage named Bethel Children’s Home, Bethel Primary School as well as the Bethel day care centre at Dhepaguda.

It was a hard task for head of these institutions Pravin Kumar Sipka to protect the 140 orphans of the children’s home and to send them to safe places.

The children were sent back to their original villages with the help of the staff of the institution.

These parentless children were compelled to stay with their known families till the orphanage becomes functional again.

But it may take much time. And it would also affect the education of these children as they were studying in schools of Muniguda, said Mr Sipka. The institution has suffered severe losses as it jeeps and buses were also burnt down.

The irony was that the miscreants burnt down 60 cycles which were used by the children of the orphanage.

Even the female menial workers have lost a great help as around 250 infants of menial labourers were looked after during day at this centre.

The efforts to resurrect the institutions from the burnt remains are yet to start.

Mr Sipka and his staff still feel insecure to return back to Muniguda to start the work. “It would be hard to start everything from the scrap for the orphans as the miscreants have burnt down all their books, beds and mattresses,” Mr Sipka said.

He alleged that till now the administration has not made detail assessment of the losses. When contacted Sub-Collector of Gunupur Pratapendra Das said the Collector had already filed the preliminary report of the losses to the Special Relief Commissioner. But the detailed loss report would be prepared by the concerned Block Development Officer (BDO) in next few days.

According to him situation was normal in Muniguda area as CRPF personnel were deployed in the area and no more violence was reported.

Efforts were also on to have peace committees in every panchayat of Muniguda block, he said.

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