Food-poisoning cases: Sangrur meritorious school principal negligent, finds probe panel
After 74 students hospitalised with food-poisoning, probe team finds principal and warden ignored complaints of students and teachers about substandard food being served in hostel mess.
The magisterial probe into the recent food-poisoning incident at Government Meritorious School at Ghabdan in Sangrur district has found principal Manish Kumar Sharma, mess warden Satvinder Kaur and contractor Maninder Singh Vohra were negligent and recommended legal action against them.
Mess manager Parminder Singh and Vohra have already been booked for attempted murder and their contracts were suspended after the incident on December 2. The principal has been placed under suspension.
As many as 74 students were hospitalised when they complained of restlessness, vomiting and stomach ache after a meal at the hostel mess.
The four-member probe team, led by the Sangrur SDM, found that the students had been complaining about the poor quality of food, particularly milk and curd, being served at the mess. “The students had written several complaints to the principal and mess warden about the poor quality of food. Even teachers had given their remarks about the poor quality of food in the register kept at the school and requested for monitoring on a daily basis,” the report said.
No action was taken on their complaints and the quality of food continued to remain substandard.
Senior functionaries of the school education department and administration were also not informed.
Besides, the behaviour of the warden was not good with the children and he did not let them call their parents, it said.
The report concluded that the dereliction of duty by the principal and the warden had led to negligence by the mess contractor.
Sangrur deputy commissioner Jitendra Jorwal said, “I have received the panel’s report and action will be taken according to the findings.”