Cuttack, Feb. 22: Orissa High Court today directed the state women and child development secretary to submit a report within three weeks on the number of NGOs running shelter homes for children in Odisha.

The division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra issued the direction on a PIL filed by Bibek Mohanty, the executive chairman of Legal Aid Services Odisha (Laso), a Cuttack-based NGO.

The court also directed the secretary to seek reports from the district collectors on the manner of functioning of such NGOs in the respective districts. It further directed the Sundargarh collector to submit a report on the current status of children at the orphanage run by Global Village at Biramitrapur by Friday.

Mohanty had alleged that the NGO had housed about 45 orphan children and was not taking proper care of them although it received substantial funds from various sources. An FIR has also been lodged against the NGO.

The PIL had sought direction of the Odisha government to make a thorough vigilance probe into the functioning of the NGOs, particularly the ones that run shelter homes for the children in distress.

The petition also sought direction to the government to chalk out ways and means to create modalities to curb the illegalities and exploitation by the NGOs.

and enact a law with penal provisions for their effective functioning.