Srinagar: An FIR was lodged in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district following an online report about illegal adoption of children, who were orphaned during the Covid pandemic, officials said here on Wednesday.
According to the officials, an online news article regarding alleged illegal adoption and “sale” of Covid orphans has come to the notice of Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) Mission Director in J&K Shabnam Kamili, in which serious allegations have been made against two people by an NGO.
In this connection, the mission director has directed the authorities concerned to take action and an FIR has been lodged at Pampore police station against the culprits, they said.
Sheetal Nanda, the secretary of Social Welfare Department, has taken up the issue with the Kashmir IGP to ensure immediate action in the matter and initiate legal course of action under relevant laws.
In addition, Kamili has issued instant orders to child welfare committees to meet Covid orphans personally which have already been identified by the department and uploaded their details on different online portals of the Government of India and submit a report to the Directorate of ICPS within a day’s time, the officials said.
“Further, fact finding committees were also constituted for Jammu and Kashmir divisions in order to ascertain the number of orphans/Covid orphans and their well-being in all the districts of J&K,” they added.
