The warning was announced after HC was informed by petitioners that the state had done very little to implement HC’s orders The Bombay high court has directed the Maharashtra to send specialist doctors to Melghat and other tribal areas, and has put the state health secretary on notice and asked him to be on guard if any more malnutrition deaths were reported in the state’s tribal belts. The court said that if there was a dearth of doctors, the state could organise regular visits of doctors from civic and civil-run hospitals to tribal regions. The warning was issued after HC was informed by petitioners that despite various orders of the court and the constitution of a core committee to supervise the provision of medical facilities in Melghat and other tribal areas to arrest malnutrition deaths of tribal children, the state had done very little to implement HC’s orders, even as malnutrition deaths kept on occurring till date. HC has asked the state and Centre to file affidavits and also asked the petitioners to give the latest update on malnutrition deaths in the tribal areas before the next hearing.
