List steps taken to curb hunger deaths'

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked the state government to submit the steps taken by it to prevent death due to malnutrition in the Melghat area of Maharashtra.

The petitioner informed the court that in the last nine months, 72 deaths had occurred due to malnutrition in the Melghat area. The court asked the state that other benches of the high court, too, had passed various orders in this case, so what steps had been taken by the state so far.

A bench of Justices Abh-ay S. Oka and Mahesh S. Sonak was hearing a bunch of PILs pertaining to death due to malnutrition in tribal areas. Ear-lier, the court had issued various directions to reduce malnutrition-indu-ced deaths and illnesses among those living in the Melghat region of Vidar-bha and other tribal areas.

The court on Friday asked the state whether it could come up with a system to ensure that doctors and healthcare workers posted in tribal areas, such as Melghat and Nandurbar, conducted door-to-door visits.

The court also asked the state whether any official of the committee constituted to provide healthcare in tribal areas ever visited these places to check if any child was suffering from any ailment.

During the hearing on Thursday, the petitioners pointed out that there was little change on the ground despite the court having appointed a core committee led by the state chief secretary.