Egg, milk with mid-day meal in Karnataka

The state government on Monday informed the high court that it would implement a scheme to provide egg and milk to anganwadi children of the state along with their mid-day meal.

This assurance came in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition by Athani Vimochana Sangha, an NGO, saying that 4,531 children of the state were suffering from malnutrition and starvation.

The division bench headed by Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen adjourned the case to March 5.

On September 23, 2011, the NGO had written a letter to the chief justice in this regard. Quoting a news report in a private news channel, it said 4,531 children suffered from malnutrition and starvation.

During earlier hearings, the petitioner had contended that between April 2009 and August 2011, 2,689 children had died because of malnutrition in Raichur district alone. Although the chief secretary had assured action, nothing had been done, the petitioner said. Hence, there was an urgent need to identify children suffering from malnutrition.

The additional advocate general KM Nataraj, on Monday, informed the court that the government would implement a scheme for providing egg and milk to children along with the midday meal.