Cuttack, July 28: Orissa High Court has set a 10-day deadline for the state government to give a clarification regarding the death of seven children caused by collapse of a wall at an anganwadi centre 18 days ago.

The court set the deadline yesterday after the state government failed to provide clarifications in response to notices issued on a PIL.

The division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice S.K. Mishra, before which the PIL of human rights activist Prabir Kumar Das came up for admission on Friday, had posted the matter to be heard before the court.

When the matter was taken up, advocate-general of Odisha Ashok Mohanty sought two weeks to file a counter-affidavit.

But the court allowed only 10 days.

The tragic incident had occurred at the Anganwadi Centre at Nelia Upper Primary School at Suansia Sahi under Ranpur block in Nayagarh district when children were taking meals on July 9.

Das had focused his PIL on the issue of safety of children at Anganwadi Centres, while seeking direction to the State government to constitute a task force immediately to study the buildings across the state where Anganwadi Centres are operating to take preventive measures to avert such tragic incidents in future. The Court had issued notices to the state government on July 18. The Court had issued notices to the state government on July 18.

“The vulnerability of dilapidated buildings (which house the Anganwadi Centres) to incessant rain as it happened in the case at hand (at Ranpur) should be of paramount concern as the rainy season has already started in the state”, the petition said, while seeking direction to the State government to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the parents of each deceased child.

The PIL has further sought “direction/ guidelines for periodic visits by members of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and District Child Welfare Committees for ensuring the welfare and safety of children in the Anganwadi centres”.

Cuttack based legal advocacy group - Committee for Legal Aid to Poor (CLAP) had filed a similar petition seeking high court intervention to allow the authorities to provide services to children and women under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), only after safety norms are fulfilled at the Anganwadi Centres.

Government of India’s ICDS through the network of Anganwadi Centres caters to the children and women services including health, immunization, nutrition, health education, supplementary nutrition programme and pre-school education.

“In spite of it, the government in the State is closing its eyes for the infrastructural development of anganwadi centres. It is a matter of great concern as its consequence was evident from the tragic incident in which seven children were killed after the collapse of the wall of the Anganwadi Centre at Nelia Upper Primary School at Suansia Sahi under Ranpur block in Nayagarh district on July 9”, CLAP alleged.