Melbourne, September 17 (ANI): Lisa Neville, Australian Community Services Minister, has come under fire after huge number of bungling in the child protection services emerged, including a sex horror case of a man accused of fathering four children with his daughter.
Neville is expected to be faced with calls to resign after revelations of failed attempts by Victoria’s Department of Human Services (DHS) to conduct proper background checks on a known sexual predator before letting a child into his care.
The accused is said to have caged his daughter as a virtual prisoner, raping her almost daily from when she was 11 years old, reports the Herald Sun.
All the four kids bore by the woman, who is now under the care of authorities in a safe house, had health problems when delivered in major hospitals in Melbourne. One of the kids died soon after birth.
Their birth certificates do not hold the name of their fathers, prompting alarms as to why questions were not asked at the time.
The man denied the allegations, but was charged after DNA tests allegedly proved he was the father of her children. He is due to appear in court in November.
Comparisons have been drawn between the case and that of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who held his daughter as a sex slave for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.
Minister Lisa Neville told ABC Radio: “I was extremely appalled to see the allegations.”
“They are only allegations and are before the courts at the moment and we need to be very careful about how much detail we go into,” Neville said.
“I became aware of this from the media today and I don’t know what, or if, (there has been) any involvement of the police, the department or other agencies … over the past 30 years.
“This will be a priority to look into,” she added. (ANI)
Musharraf power theft scandal case: Low level workers punished
Islamabad, Sep 17 (ANI): The Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) has only punished 64 junior officers for their involvement in the power theft scandal involving former President Pervez Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz and others in the luxurious Chak Shahzad farmhouses.
The big guns in the electricity department have not even been touched, according to well-placed sources.
The list of punished employees includes 35-meter readers, 14 line superintendents and 15 sub-divisional officers, The News reports.
Sources said these personnel were those who had to implement the orders of the higher-ups and no high-ranking official has been touched in the order passed by Iesco on 10-9-2009.
The official spokesman for Iesco, Ameer Hussain Chaman, when asked about the punishment, said he was not aware of any such punishments.
“I have not been conveyed any such details, therefore, I cannot offer any comment over the issue,” he added.
Sources said Colonel Umer Hayat was conducting the inquiry and on 9-9-2009 his tenure was completed and on 10-09-2009 these personnel were punished.
They say that in this power-theft scandal the higher-ups passed all the orders and the junior officers had no option, but to obey the orders.
It is worth mentioning here that Musharraf had constructed a modern house on the farm obtained for breeding poultry and vegetables, but the ex-general has been enjoying the cheapest power tariff, D-2(1) connection, which is meant for agriculture tube wells and lift irrigation pumps. (ANI)