Latest news with #KAnand
Hans India
27-06-2025
- Health
- Hans India
Stronger action against malnutrition, child marriage proposed in Dakshina Kannada
Expressing concern over sluggish progress in nutritional and child welfare programmes, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat CEO Dr K Anand has directed officials to urgently strengthen initiatives under the Women and Child Development Department. Chairing a district-level coordination meeting on Thursday, Dr Anand noted that the district lags behind others in implementing the Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) and called for immediate improvement in service delivery. He asked Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) to ensure that malnourished children—20 identified as severely undernourished—are admitted without delay to Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs), with due care to hygiene and nutrition. 'Our goal should be to make Dakshina Kannada a malnutrition-free district,' he asserted. Dr Anand also stressed the need to ensure pre-primary education for children aged 3 to 5 and suggested using women's groups and gram sabhas to identify and enrol out-of-school children. On the infrastructure front, officials from the Karnataka State Habitat Centre were instructed to expedite Anganwadi building repairs. CDPOs were told to monitor and regularly inspect ongoing works. Two cases of child marriage were reported in the district in the latter half of 2024. Dr Anand urged gram panchayats to hold vigilance meetings to address child marriage and teenage pregnancies, directing that any suspected case be reported to Childline (1098). He also called for awareness drives across community platforms. Highlighting the 13 dowry-related harassment cases recorded in the same period, Dr Anand asked for legal literacy campaigns in mothers' groups, Stree Shakti meetings, and Child Protection Committee sessions. He also recommended urgent repair of the District Bal Bhavan building.
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Consider plea to introduce English-medium classes in Tenkasi govt school
Madurai: The Madras high court has directed authorities to consider and pass orders on a plea seeking the introduction of English-medium classes at a government higher secondary school in Vellalankulam in Tenkasi district. The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by K Anand, a resident of Tenkasi, who highlighted a significant drop in student enrollment over the past decade due to the absence of English-medium instruction. The school, located in a remote village, is the only educational institution in the area and primarily serves children from agricultural families. Despite submitting a formal representation to introduce English-medium classes to boost enrollment and improve access to quality education, the petitioner received no response from authorities. This led him to approach the court. A division bench comprising Justice S Srimathy and Justice R Vijayakumar instructed the authorities to consider the petitioner's representation on its merits, following due process and after hearing all concerned parties. The court ordered that a decision be made within 12 weeks and disposed of the petition.
