Delhi Assembly Committee visits shelter home after string of inmate deaths

New Delhi, Aug 3 (PTI) A Delhi Assembly committee on Saturday visited the shelter home in Rohini in west Delhi to inquire into a series of deaths of inmates
     The findings of the Committee on Petitions will soon be presented to the Assembly Speaker with recorded accounts of the residents set for imminent release, a statement said.
     The statement stated that when the members of the Committee led by AAP MLA Kuldeep Kumar reached the Asha Kiran Home, they were stopped outside. Kumar said he will write to the Delhi Assembly Speaker on the matter
     The AAP MLA said they noticed "many deficiencies" in the shelter.
     "Whatever negligence and shortcomings we have seen here, we will soon prepare a report and submit it.
     "I want to ask LG sahab that why did he give the responsibility of administrator to an officer who was caught taking bribe by CBI and who was suspended for 5 years?" he said.
     Kumar said that they have received many complaints about Asha Kiran Home.
     "We visited Asha Kiran Home on Saturday and interacted with many people living there and recorded their videos. We will release it soon and will also show what arrangements are there for the people living in the home."
     People living there have said that "they did not get food, there was no cleanliness, there was no treatment.
     "Why has the officer responsible for this not been suspended yet?
     "The committee was stopped from entering the home. What have they hidden inside? Whereas the petition committee has constitutional rights," he said adding that they will submit this entire report to the Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
     "The minister of the Delhi government has ordered an inquiry on this. The committee received a complaint. Therefore, the petition committee has come here to investigate. Despite this, if the committee is being stopped, then it is very unfortunate. We will write to the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly about this," Kumar said.
     The Delhi government on Friday ordered a magisterial probe into the death of 14 inmates of the Asha Kiran shelter home last month.
     The Lt Governor has also directed an investigation into the running of the Delhi government's shelter homes, including the deaths at Asha Kiran.
     At a press conference earlier in the day, senior AAP leader and Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed that the administrator of the shelter home, Rahul Agarwal, was arrested by the CBI in 2016 for taking a "bribe" and remained suspended for five years.
     The Aam Aadmi Party questioned Lt Governor V K Saxena why an officer previously "suspended" for allegedly taking bribe was appointed as administrator of the Asha Kiran shelter.
     Officials at Raj Niwas clarified the administrator was appointed "internally" by the Social Welfare Department which is a fully and totally transferred subject under the control of the chief minister and the minister concerned.
     He was not appointed by the LG, they claimed.
     No immediate reaction was available from Agarwal.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)