Preet Mandir loses Goa License

Mumbai: The Goa government has cancelled the in-country adoption license of the Goa branch of Preet Mandir, a child adoption agency, following a CNN-IBN expose, which had revealed how the agency had bypassed all legal procedures to start their operations in Goa.

The Special Investigative Team (SIT) of CNN-IBN uncovered that in the last one year, the agency had got eight infants and 15 other children and women working with the agency picked up the kids from the countryside to supply them to needy parents.

Interestingly, the agency managed to get a license from the government authorities even when an enquiry was pending against it in a child-trafficking case.

Though the cancellation of the license is temporary as of now, the Goa government says the cancellation could be made permanent.

The new branch of Preet Mandir in Goa's Aldona village had been in operation for over a year now, but it got its license only a couple of months ago.

Initially, it was with the permission from the deputy sarpanch of the village, John Vaz that the agency had started operation.

"We didn't know what kind of work they were doing, so we allowed them," says Vaz.

However, a resident of the village, Joseph Pinto says, "They must have bribed. So they (the authorities) are cool about it and not saying a word about it."

Picking up children from the countryside, the agency sent some of the infants to Pune.

"I went to Pune twice. Both times, I was escorting infants from Sawantwadi in Maharashtra to the Pune," testifies a maid working with the agency, Ujwala.

The fact that the centre managed to bypass the law speaks volumes about the kind of clout the organisation has established in such a short time in the state of Goa.