State child rights panel chairperson, member fired ‘for misusing powers’

Ranchi: The chairperson of the Jharkhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) Kajal Yadav and a member of the commission were removed from their post in “public interest” by the state department of social welfare, women and child development late on Monday evening. Yadav has, however, refuted the charges against her.
The chairperson of NCPR, Priyank Kanoongo, has also stood by Yadav and said she has been targeted for acting against “forced conversions” of schoolchildren.
Along with Kajal Yadav, the SCPCR chairman who was appointed in November 2022, the department also removed Sunil Kumar Verma, one of the five members of the commission. A departmental notification said the two were removed based on the recommendations of a four-member enquiry committee which was constituted in December last year to investigate the various allegations against them.
Babulal Marandi, the state president of BJP on Tuesday morning, flagged one of his old tweets from May 30 last year and wrote on X, “The Jharkhand government was eventually forced to act on these two corrupt persons. Though it was late, the action was taken nonetheless. I urge the state government to initiate a high-level probe in the name of child welfare.”