Patna: A court yesterday sent Meena Devi, the principal of a government-run primary school in Saran district of Bihar, where 23 children died of food poisoning last week, to judicial custody till August 5, a police officer said.
The principal was presented in the district chief judicial magistrate’s court, Saran Superintendent of Police Sujit Kumar said.
Meena Devi was arrested by the Special Investigation Team of Bihar Police on Wednesday.
According to police officials, she denied her involvement in the tragic incident in which 23 children died after eating their midday meal at the Gandaman village primary school.
A forensic lab’s report last week confirmed the presence of toxic insecticide in the cooking oil used to prepare food at the school.
Police have filed a petition in the court to conduct a polygraph test on Meena Devi.
Across Bihar yesterday, millions of schoolchildren, mostly from the poorest of poor families, were not served their midday meal as 3,00,000 school teachers began a boycott of the scheme.
The teachers’ boycott virtually paralysed the midday meal scheme in the state. Principal Secretary Amarjeet Sinha of the department of education requested the teachers to cooperate with the government till alternative arrangements were made for preparation and distribution of the school meals.
“We have requested teachers to assist the government to run the scheme till alternative arrangements are made,” Sinha told reporters here.
Ignoring the state government’s appeal to continue the midday meal scheme, the teachers began their boycott yesterday.
In view of the teachers’ demand to hand over the scheme to NGOs or some agency, Akshay Patra, a charitable organisation, was invited to take it over in Patna and Muzaffarpur districts.
Soon after the teachers’ association announced its boycott of the scheme, Bihar Education Minister P K Shahi said it was difficult to get an agency to run the scheme in 72,000 schools in the state.
“The government does not have the resources to hire an agency for the huge task of serving midday meals to 16 million students,” Shahi said.
IANS
