Uttarakhand Governor Krishan Kant Paul stressed on laying special focus on development of communication skills in children. He said that programmes like Bal Mahotsav and children festivals should be included in the range of annual activities held at present, which would also help in generating funds. The Governor said this while presiding over a meeting of the Uttarakhand child welfare council executive members at the Raj Bhawan in Dehradun on Monday.
Being the ex officio head of the child welfare council, the Governor sought a detailed report on the various activities and made various important suggestions for strengthening the council, which were discussed in detail during the meeting.
The issue of the corpus fund of the council and securing the funds for schemes being implemented were also discussed in detail by the executive members. While discussion on the subject of increasing creative activities for the children in order to help towards their all round development, the governor laid special emphasis on the development of communication skills in the children. A sum of Rs two lakh was approved to the council from the Governor’s discretionary fund for the welfare of children without parents. In addition to this, various suggestions were also put forwards towards efforts aimed at increasing the sources of income for the council.
When the executive members informed the governor about the child welfare council not being provided any financial grant by the State Government, the Governor said that he will himself take the initiative for facilitating provision in the State Government budget for the upliftment and welfare of children. Stressing on the need for making the district child welfare council active, he said that the State level council will first have to be strengthened in order to achieve this. The income and expenditure details of the council along with the audit report for the year 2015-16, the presentation of estimate of income and expenses of the council in the year 2016-17, the works of the council in the current year, discussion on repair of the Bal Bhawan building and related tasks along with issues incluing the general meeting of the council and election procedure for the new office bearers were also among the issues discussed by the governor. It was decided that the State child welfare council general meeting will be held in February 2017. The Governor appreciated efforts undertaken by the council’s joint secretary KP Bhatt for making greeting cards based on paintings by differently-abled children available to the public.
The Governor’s secretary Arun Dhaundiyal, senior vice chairman of the council Sushil Chandra Dobhal, vice chairman US Pal, vice chairperson Kusum Rani Naithani, vice chairperson Madhu Beri, general secretary Bal Krishna Dobhal and treasurer Solomon Prakash among others were among those present in the meeting.