Chennai: The state government has informed the Madras high court that it has created a Tamil Nadu Juvenile Justice Fund with a corpus of Rs 25 lakh for the welfare and rehabilitation of children.
K.Manivasan, principal secretary to government, social welfare and nutritious meal Programme department stated this in his additional affidavit filed in response to the suo motu proceedings initiated by the Madras high court relating to effective implementation of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 inTamil Nadu and Puducherry, pursuant to an order of the Supreme Court.
When the suo motu proceedings came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Justices Huluvadi G.Ramesh and M.Dhandapani on Thursday, Manivasan filed the present additional affidavit.
In respect of the proactive role of the Madras high court in the implementation of Juvenile Justice Act in Tamil Nadu, he submitted that based on the directions of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of the Madras high court has constituted the “Juvenile Justice Committee” comprising five judges of the Madras high court headed by Justice S.Manikumar.
Stating that the committee has been issuing directions from time to time with specific time for compliance, he listed out compliance of 15 directions.
He said the government has issued orders for establishment of place of safety and sanctioned a sum of Rs 42 lakh for repair and renovation work to the existing infrastructure in government reception unit. For the year 2017-18, the government had sanctioned Rs 9.65 lakh for imparting modernized vocational training to the Child Care Institution. For the year 2017-18, skill development training to 250 trainees of 8 Child Care Institutions had been sanctioned. A de-addiction centre has been set up at Chengalpattu in Kancheepuram district at a cost of Rs 23 lakh to exclusively treat children addicted to alcohol and substances, he added. The bench posted to June 11, further hearing of the case.
