A Class-IX girl in Koraput district on Thursday succumbed to burn injuries she had sustained when she fell into a hot vessel of dal on Sunday at the Koraput District Headquarters Hospital.
Basanti Barik of the Baligaon Girls’ High School in Boipariguda block run by the SC and ST Development Department who was staying in the school hostel, had fallen into a large container of hot dal while waiting in queue for the mid-day meal on Sunday.The girl had sustained 30 per cent burn injuries on her back and was taken to the Government Sub-Divisional Hospital, Jeypore.
However, she had to be moved to the district hospital at Koraput the day after, due to the lack of facilities to treat burn injuries at Jeypore.Doctors at the district hospital had said she was recovering well and had planned to shift her to the MKCG Medical College Hospital, Brahmapur, for further treatment. But her condition suddenly deteriorated and doctors declared her dead around noon.
The Koraput District Welfare Officer (DWO) informed that an ex-gratia of Rs1 lakh has been sanctioned by the State Government to the next of kin of the deceased girl and arrangement has been made for delivery of her body to her family after postmortem.Several such accidents have happened in Government schools earlier as well, a majority of them cases of food poisoning and fire-related mishaps during mid-day meals. However, no specific guidelines have been issued or preventive measures enforced by the Government to avoid such mishaps.It also needs to be investigated whether in the present case the girl was sick before the accident and if she was treated there in case of sickness.