Unnerved by a bitter Opposition attack for the school meals tragedy that claimed 23 young lives, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday strongly defended his government’s response and said the ongoing probe would cover all relevant angles, including a possible conspiracy.
Hours after the absconding headmistress of the ill-fated government primary school in the southern district of Chapra was arrested while reaching a court to surrender, Mr Kumar chose to officially break silence on the July 17 disaster and subsequent politicking. Meena Kumari, the headmistress, was facing arrest since an FIR was lodged against her for murder and criminal negligence. She dismissed the charges as baseless, saying she was innocent, and demanded a CBI inquiry into the entire incident. “Neither I nor my husband, Arjun Rai, have anything to do with any political party,” she said before her interrogation by the SIT began.
Functioning of the midday meal scheme in Bihar faced serious trouble as 300,000 teachers across the state decided to boycott the scheme run in the state’s 72,000 schools, saying they didn’t want to be burdened with such non-academic work. “This scheme has constantly given teachers a bad name and we want the government to engage an agency for this job,” said Bihar State Primary Teachers’ Association president Barajnandan Sharma. Bihar education minister P.K. Shahi and education secretary Amarjeet Sinha appealed to the teachers to continue the work. The state government began exploring alternative means to run the scheme.
The CM expressed deep regret for the deaths of 23 children due to traces of organo-phosphorus insecticide in their meals and said the tragedy did not appear to be an accident. Defending his government against charges of negligence, Mr Kumar said: “There was nothing wrong with our response time. We decided to move the children to Patna when some of them became critical. Doctors in Chhapra did their best”.
“The way protests were organised instead of helping the sick children and people were not allowed to enter the area... The forensic report pointed at high concentration of insecticide. All these points at something,” said Mr Kumar, who told partymen on Monday that the BJP and RJD appeared to have been behind this incident and the earlier Bodh Gaya blasts.
“As long as Bihar’s people are with us, I am not worried by any conspiracy to derail me from my work. It’s the people who decide in a democracy,” said Mr Kumar, and added that a leg injury had prevented him from visiting Chapra after the deaths.