Be responsible about kids, HC tells govt

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday said the state government must display some sense of responsibility while taking decisions that affect children. The observation came from a bench of Justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla on a PIL for action against women and child development minister Pankaja Munde in the chikki scam.
Munde’s advocate Niteen Pradhan said there was “not a single complaint from any anganwadi or consumer”.Justice Kanade said, “There must be some sense of responsibility to be followed when you take decisions like this, especially when it comes to children. Other matters like irrigation…” The sentence remained incomplete, amid giggles in the courtroom.
Petitioner Sandeep Ahire has urged an inquiry by a panel headed by a retired HC judge or an ACB officer. The state’s advocate, Shrihari Aney, said the government on its own stopped the distribution of chikkis to anganwadis from July 10. “The first thing we did was to stop supply to all schools. The state is as anxious as every like-minded person that such a thing does not enter schools,” he said.
Aney said the government requested food and drug administration (FDA) commissioner Harshdeep Kamble to take action. He said Kamble effected seizures from factories, godowns and anganwadis, and will send samples for analyses. “The state government has no role to play. It will act on the advice of the FDA commissioner to take action, including prosecution,” said Aney.
The bench said there are two issues—the procurement procedure and if chikkis are unsafe for consumption. “Ultimately, they will be distributed to children. Our first concern is about the second part,” said Justice Kanade.
Ahire’s advocate Atul Damle said that as per the Pune FDA’s tests, the chikki samples were deemed inedible. The hearing has been adjourned to August 5 so that the respondents (including the state and Munde) can file affidavits on other aspects of not following procedure on tenders.