KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Monday directed the state government to take appropriate steps to ensure that the competitions in the school youth festival are conducted on schedule without putting the children to unnecessary travails.Giving the direction, Justice S Sirijagan opined that if the state cannot conduct it properly, the School Kalotsavam itself should be stopped. The court passed the order while considering petitions filed by Harshitha V Menon, N Sisnadas and Vishnupriya Viswanath, Plus-II students of KPMHSS, Poothotta, seeking permission to participate in the state youth festival.The petitioners submitted that they could not perform well in the competition. “The kathakali competition at the Ernakulam district youth festival was scheduled to be held from 3 pm on January 5 but the competition was held only at 4.30 am on January 6. If the competition was held as per the schedule, we could have performed better,” they said. They were waiting for their turn without proper food and sleep. The petitioners sought a direction to give them priority to perform at the state youth festival, which began at Thrissur on Monday.Dismissing the petition, the court observed that the circumstances stated by the petitioners were applicable to all the competitors and it did not find any merit in the case.“Such things happen very often in school festivals. The state should take note of the fact. Poor children are being asked to wait throughout the night without food or sleep for participating in the competition,” the court observed.
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