BANGALORE: Following the wrong information given by an officer from Women and Child Development Department about children dying owing to malnutrition and starvation in Deodurg taluk, North Karnataka, the High Court on Monday came down heavily on the state government.
Usha Patwari Joint Director of Women and Child Development said the department rejected the scheme of serving eggs and milk to children. “The state government is claiming they don’t have money to serve eggs and milk to children and rejected the file,” she said.
Hearing the petition, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice BV Nagarathna said, “It is the duty of the government to serve food to children. It has money to spend on other schemes but why can’t they spend on children food. They have to fulfill the basic needs of children.”
The government counsel denied the Joint Director’s reports. “The government has not rejected the scheme to serve eggs and milk to children. Instead it is thinking of working more effectively on the issues. The joint director had no information and gave wrong statements before the court,” he told Express.