Updated on Sunday, September 30, 2007, 00:00 IST

Mumbai, Sept 30: Cutting across party lines, a group of young parliamentarians is on a mission to "curb malnutrition" in the country and as part of it they visited neighbouring Thane district in Maharashtra.

The "Young Turks", including Sachin Pilot of Congress, NCP's Supriya Sule, Shahnawaz Hussain of BJP and Jay Panda of Biju Janata Dal toured the tribal belt of Palghar, Wada and adjoining areas in the district yesterday "to get a feel of the situation on ground".

"At a time when the country's growth rate is nearing double-digits, it is a matter of concern that India still has a significant number of malnourished children. As a result, while we compete with china on the economy front, it is sad to be compared with Ethiopia and Somalia on the issue of malnutrition," the mps said.

Actors Rahul Bose and noted paediatrician Samir Dalwai were also part of the visit, organised under the aegis of the "citizens alliance against malnutrition".

The lawmakers have already visited malnutrition-affected areas of Madhya Pradesh and are expected to undertake similar tours in Orissa and Bihar soon, after which they will submit a report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The report would dwell on the factors hindering implementation of the various government schemes to curb malnutrition which affects women and children.

Effective implementation of the Centre's Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme would go a long way in curbing malnutrition, panda said.

"We were not here on a fault-finding mission but to observe the best practices in each states, identify loopholes and then make our recommendations to curb malnutrition to the prime minister," pilot said.

Bureau Report