HC summons principal secretary over midday meal

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed S R Umashankar, Principal Secretary, Department of Primary and Secondary Education, to appear personally through video conference on December 8.A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar passed the order in relation to the measures to be taken to compensate children for not supplying midday meals after the Covid-induced lockdown.

The bench specifically asked Umashankar to remain present as the state government did not comply with the Centre’s order on May 5 with regard to transfer of cooking cost.Meanwhile, government advocate Vikram Huilgol explained the contents of the affidavit filed by Umashankar detailing the steps taken by the state to compensate for the midday meal scheme.

But the bench was not convinced about the manner in which the state government made the assessment  for proposed compensation.The bench also directed the state government to produce the data of the food distributed to different categories of persons through the Anganawadis from March 26 till the end 
of November.