High court takes serious note of delay in release of ICPS funds

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has taken serious note of the delay in release of funds by the state government to institutions taking care of

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has taken serious note of the delay in release of funds by the state government to institutions taking care of specially-abled children. The funds were to be released under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) of the Centre.

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A bench of justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and justice Ranjan Roy also ordered the state government to submit a report on action taken by it for implementation of various provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015.

Earlier this month, while hearing a PIL (civil) filed by Anoop Gupta, related with delay in release of funds by the state government under the ICPS, the court had asked the Centre to submit an affidavit informing about the procedure of releasing funds to the state government under the ICPS.

Advocate general Raghvendra Singh appeared on behalf of the state government, advocates Adarsh Mehrotra and Umesh Verma appeared on behalf of the petitioner and Nishant Shukla represented the Centre.

The centre releases ICPS funds to state governments to build protective environment for deprived children, including the specially-abled.

During hearing of the case, it also came to light that Drishti Samajik Sansthan, which takes care of specially-abled children, was the only institution that had furnished utilization certificate for the second quarter. Even then the NGO did not receive funds in time.

The NGOs receiving funds from the state government under the ICPS have to submit utilization certificate to the government. The funds are released on a quarterly basis. However, till last year funds were released in two instalments.

The court has fixed September 20 as next date of hearing.