Deaths pile up, but Chinese manjha remains on sale: HC

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Monday took a tough stand on the issue of Chinese ‘manjha’ (thread) being sold despite deaths and injuries caused by it in the state, including Lucknow

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Monday took a tough stand on the issue of Chinese ‘manjha’ (thread) being sold despite deaths and injuries caused by it in the state, including Lucknow. The court expressed displeasure over the state government’s “failure” to take concrete steps to stop the sale and purchase of the thread in the state. The court directed that the next hearing of the case be held on November 6.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court (HT File Photo)

A division bench of Justices Rajan Roy and Manjive Shukla passed the order on November 2 in response to a public interest litigation filed by a local lawyer in 2018. The petition raised the issue of Chinese ‘manjha’ endangering lives daily and demanded a strict ban on it. During the hearing, the state government informed the court that provisions were being developed to completely ban the purchase and sale of Chinese ‘manjha’. Previously, the court had directed the Central government to submit a response to the issue of preventing the online availability of Chinese ‘manjha’.

At the earlier hearing in May this year, the HC, taking a tough stand on the deaths and injuries of people in the state, had ordered the additional chief secretaries/principal secretaries of the Home and Tax departments, the Director General of Police, and the heads of the Industrial Development and Environment departments to appear through video conferencing on July 13. The court had asked these officers what steps have been taken and what procedure has been decided to ban the production, sale and use of the banned Chinese ‘manjha’ under the earlier order.

HTC