Karnataka Minister airs concern over growing malnutrition among pregnant women, children
Bengaluru: Karnataka Minister for Medical Education, Skill Development and Livelihood Dr Sharan Prakash Patil on Tuesday acknowledged the challenge of growing malnutrition among women and children and urged the people to make use of the central and state government schemes to address the issue.
He expressed concern over the growing malnutrition among pregnant women and children in 'Kalyana Karnataka' region, and stressed on the need to eradicate poverty and illiteracy in the society to get rid of malnutrition. The minister was addressing the gathering here after inaugurating a two-day workshop on Food, Nutrition, Health-Hygiene & Wash organised by National Livelihood Mission.
"In order to address malnutrition among the children, our government is providing eggs to schoolchildren twice a week and those who don’t consume eggs would be provided bananas and 'chikki'," Patil said.
The state government has launched 'Anaemia Mukta Poushtika Karnataka' (Anaemia-free Nutrition Karnataka) scheme to address anaemia and malnutrition among newborns, children, teens, pregnant and lactating mothers, he said. "This will improve the situation gradually." Emphasising on the importance of women’s role in making any scheme successful, the Minister underlined the need of women self-help groups.
“The Sthri Shakthi women self-help groups started by former Chief Minister S M Krishna in 1999 did a great job in improving the rural economy. Dharmasthala Rural Development self-help group and many organisations have helped women become economically self-reliant. The society today needs such organisations," he said.
Karnataka has become a role model in the country in empowering women, and the state government's schemes are being applauded at national and international level, he added.
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Mamata’s allegations on Bengal SIR baseless, exaggerated: BJP's Suvendu
Kolkata (PTI): Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Sunday termed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's allegations over the ongoing SIR in the state as "baseless and exaggerated", and accused her of trying to derail the electoral roll revision exercise for political reasons.
In a post on X, Adhikari also said he has written to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and claimed that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls was "exposing the rot in the voter lists - bogus entries, duplicates, and infiltrators that have been nurtured under the TMC's watch for years".
The BJP leader alleged that the SIR exercise was "damaging the TMC's electoral prospects", and that's why the CM was resorting to hysteria".
Banerjee had on Saturday written to the CEC, alleging that the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls has been turned into an exercise to exclude voters rather than correct records.
In her third letter to Kumar since the beginning of SIR, the chief minister accused the Election Commission of "political bias, insensitivity, and high-handedness" during the exercise.
“I would again reiterate that her claims are nothing but a desperate attempt to derail this crucial process, which is exposing the rot in our voter lists - bogus entries, duplicates and infiltrators that have been nurtured under TMC’s watch for years,” Adhikari alleged in the post.
In his letter to the CEC, dated January 10, the leader of the opposition described the chief minister’s objections as a “politically motivated attempt” to obstruct the SIR and termed the ECI’s move as "essential to ensure free, fair and transparent" elections in the state.
"The chief minister’s portrayal of this exercise as ‘unplanned, insensitive and inhuman’ is nothing short of a gross exaggeration, blown out of proportion to create public hysteria and shift focus from her government’s failures," the BJP leader alleged.
He claimed that the SIR exercise had "exposed vulnerabilities in the electoral rolls that threatened the ruling party’s electoral prospects", triggering what he termed “unfounded outbursts” from the state administration.
On December 16, the Election Commission published the draft electoral rolls after the first phase of the SIR, with the electorate dropping from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore following the deletion of over 58 lakh names.
The second phase, which began on December 27, involves hearings of 1.67 crore electors under scrutiny, including 1.36 crore flagged for logical discrepancies and 31 lakh whose records lack mapping.
The LoP urged the Election Commission to continue the voter list revision exercise with diligence, asserting that the SIR is a routine constitutional process and should not be politicised.
