Group home for mentally ill in Chandigarh: Over a month on, management plan still hanging fire

The group home will house 90 individuals with mental challenges, including aged persons and those who have no one to look after them. Is it being set up at a cost of ₹26.79 crore

Over a month after the UT adviser had given a week’s time to the Chandigarh social welfare department in July, it is yet to submit a comprehensive management plan for the group home for individuals with mental disorders.

Chandigarh social welfare department director Palika Arora said they had prepared the management plan and will submit it to the UT adviser’s office on Monday (iStock)

The facility is under construction at Government Rehabilitation Institute for Intellectual Disabilities (GRIID), Sector 31, and the building is expected to be ready by October-end. Being set up at a cost of ₹26.79 crore, it will house 90 individuals, including aged persons who have no one to look after them.

UT social welfare department director Palika Arora said they had prepared the management plan and will submit it to the UT adviser’s office on Monday. UT administration’s plan to engage an NGO or a private entity to run the home was dropped after opposition from parents of the applicants.

The administration decided on an in-house management, either Child and Women Development Corporation Limited or a society created for this purpose, to run the home.

Officials said residents will engage in vocational training and employment as part of their routine.

Bhupinder Kaur Sidhu, a single parent, wrote an email to the UT administrator in relation to the matter. “I am diagnosed with cancer and undergoing treatment now. My son cannot live independently after me. My husband passed away 3 years ago waiting for a group home facility in Chandigarh,” she wrote.