Children orphaned by AIDS get disputed land from government

Pratapgarh, July 29: After the havoc created by the media on the five children being abandoned by the villagers taking shelter on their parents' graves, government finally allots some land to those orphaned children to build a home.

The Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh swiftly allotted land to the five orphaned children, cast away by villagers and living under tattered plastic sheets next to their parents' graves, to build a house. But only after the the fateful incident got grabbed headlines on the national television.

But as though the suffering was not enough for those tiny tots, getting the land too is going to be a tough fight for them. When the children reached the plot earmarked by the government for them in their village in Pratapgarh district on Sunday, they were barred into the property by a man who claims he owned the land. The man reportedly told the children that it was disputed property with a case pending in court since 1998.

An embarrassed district administration has promised an inquiry into how the disputed land was allotted to the children. Till when will the inquiry last, only time will tell. Till then these children have no option but to wait for their fate to show them the way forward.

The government made an announcement of Rs 5 lakh and land for a new home hours after media reports last week that the five children, the youngest barely seven, had been abandoned by their relatives and banished by their village for fears of infection as their parents had died of AIDS.

After their condition was highlighted and the administration made its promises, children's grandmother offered to keep the children, but only till their new house was ready. They are at her home for now.

All five children have tested negative for the HIV virus.

OneIndia News