THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Giving no hope for improvement in the lives of inmates at the Sri Chitra Home (SCH) for Destitute and Infirm, the authorities of the state-run organisation has still not taken any interest in appointing wardens or resident tutors. The then Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on December last year had ordered the District Collector to take urgent action on the issue. One year has passed and the order is still shelved. Even the intervention of Minister for Social Welfare M K Muneer could not bring the much-needed change to SCH.A slew of issues regarding the living condition of inmates came up in the study by Kerala State Social Security Mission last year. Also, a group of volunteers providing free tuition to the inmates too raised various allegations against the SCH authorities. However, the then superintendent Elsy Abraham ousted them. The inmates bore the brunt which was evident in the SSLC results that year. The SCH inmates, who had scored good results in 2008, 2009 and 2010, showed poor performance in 2011. Only 19 out of 30 students passed the examination. However, the SCH authorities did nothing to appoint resident tutors. With the intervention of Muneer, an ad hoc committee was formed three months ago. When contacted, SCH superintendent Eliyamma Varghese said the ad hoc committee which met on November 8 had decided to appoint wardens and resident tutors. When asked about the delay in appointment, she said wardens would be appointed through PSC. However, she was clueless about the number of wardens and time of appointments. On resident tutors, she said that discussions were on with a group of retired teachers from Pettah. “The resident tutors will be appointed soon,” she said.According to sources, the SCH authorities had invited applications for the post of wardens through newspapers. However, they later backtracked putting the onus of appointment on PSC. Former Collector Dinesh Arora had demanded appointment of degree holders as wardens to take care of the learning skills of inmates. This reportedly irked a group of uneducated wardens. The SCH authorities also had appointed ex-inmates as wardens. The volunteers, who provided free tuition to the inmates earlier, said that they could arrange three study halls with the financial support of Sasthra Sankethika Paristhiti Council which remain unused. They are ready to start a library also with the help of District Library Council. However, SCH authorities are taking a negative attitude towards the volunteers.
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