Nabarangpur/Dabugaon: In a shocking incident, a Class VI student of Maliguda project upper primary ashram school under Medana panchayat of Dabugaon block died suffering from food poisoning, according to reports.
While 14 others including three girls were undergoing treatment at Dabugaon community health centre, a medical team rushed to the school and administered first aid to 43 ill students.
Ram Bhatra, the father of the deceased, Gurubandhu Bhatra of Girla village, lodged a complaint at Dabugaon police station over the matter.
Based on the complaint, a police team led by Umerkote SDPO Hemant Kumar Padhi began a probe.
While the project UP school functions under the education department, its hostel is run with the grant of the welfare department.
Blaming the teachers, Gurubandhu’s father Ram Bhatra said had his son been given water or medicines in time, he would have been alive now.
According to reports, the teachers were on a celebration mood for unknown reasons and threw a special feast from Monday to Friday in the school. Hostel cook Jagannath Kalar was managing the cooking at the hostel and the teachers’ feast. Chicken curry was cooked Friday night for the teachers but the hostel students were served undercooked curry prepared from chicken legs, intestines and heads.
Many students took ill after consuming the curry but Gurubandhu’s condition was critical as he fell down along a road after suffering from dysentery in the morning. On being alerted by his classmates, the cook brought him to the hostel. However, the condition of the students deteriorated following which the cook shifted 11 students to the CHC in an auto rickshaw. On reaching the CHC, they found no doctors there. A female health worker and a pharmacist administered saline drips to the students. The doctors turned up at the CHC after some time but by then Gurubandhu had died.
Additional block education officer Mahesh Saha also came to the CHC after an hour but feigned ignorance about the student’s death. Later, he visited the beds and blamed the teachers for the death.
When contacted, headmaster Gourachandra Harijan said he cannot say anything as he was absent in the school Friday.
CHC doctor Dr Brahmaprakash Mohanty said the student was brought dead. He had died three hours before his arrival in the hospital, Mohanty added. Others have been administered antibiotics and they would be shifted to the district headquarters hospital if their conditions do not improve, he further said.
The student’s body was lying at the CHC till filing of this report. PNN
