High Court notice to Maharashtra govt over chikki

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has issued notice to the Maharashtra government on a public interest litigation that alleged substandard chikki (peanut sweet) was given to tribal children in government-run schools.

The contract for the supply of chikki was cleared by women and child development minister Pankaja Munde. The issue is likely to figure in the assembly , which is in session.Congress-NCP has already demanded Munde's resignation over the issue.

The division bench of Justice BP Colabawalla and VM Kanade also took cognisance of reports that there was mud in the chikkis and asked the state to test the chikkis at a private lab instead of a government lab. The government labs had cleared the chikki samples, despite state government officials reporting that the chikki's were of spurious quality.

A division bench hearing a PIL filed by Sandeep Ahire asked the state government to file its reply by July 20. The bench was not satisfied with the state's plea for another two weeks to file a reply. Asking the state to, "take the issue very seriously," the bench fixed July 20 as the next date of hearing in the case.

Petitioner's advocate Deven Jogdeo had sought the distribution of the 'substandard chikki' to be stopped and the 'scam' investigated through a committee of retired judges. Jogdeo that more than 20 items including the chikki contract were cleared in two days while the process usually takes many days.