After accusing the BJP and the RJD of hatching a conspiracy for the mid-day meal tragedy in Saran district, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that the incident was caused by not any mistake or coincidence but it was the result of a well thought conspiracy of some people.
Kumar, who faced widespread criticism for maintaining silence over the death of 23 children who had consumed the mid-day meal at Dharamasati village in Masrlakh area of Saran district, told mediapersons at his official residence on Wednesday that the huge concentration of the pesticides found in the meals itself confirms that the tragedy was the result of some conspiracy.
“The heart wrenching tragedy was not a result of a mistake or a coincidence. A tragedy on the scale of the Chhapra mid-day meal does not take place generally and it is not a normal incident,” he remarked.
He said that the investigation would be conducted by keeping all possible angles into the consideration. He said that the police investigation would reveal all facts.
He said that not a single guilty person responsible for the incident would be spared and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe the matter.
Stating there should not be any blame game between the Centre and the State Government over the tragic death of the children in the mid-day meal, Kumar asked, “Why somebody should have enmity with the children.”Children were given the contaminated food despite they had lodged complaints with the school authorities, he added.
Expressing his grief over the incident, Nitish Kumar said that both the BJP and the RJD resorted to agitation after the tragedy, causing disturbance to administrative and police authorities in discharging their duties.
He said that the FSl teams also faced a lot of problems in collecting evidences from the spot as a mob of the people not belonging to the affected villages started torching police vehicles and indulging in other unruly activities.
Responding to the criticism of not visiting the site, Kumar said that everybody knows that he has suffered a hairline fracture in his toe but his political opponents are doing petty politics by accusing him of not visiting the village despite the fact that they know his health condition.
Kumar said that he had been monitoring the entire steps taken by administrative, police and health authorities after the mid-day meal horror took place in the afternoon of July 16.
The Chief Minister said that the mid-day meal programme is a national programme, asking the Centre to allocate more funds and resources for the successful execution of the scheme.
He said that more personnel should be deputed for the mid-day programme, adding that the remuneration of the cook should also be increased from `1,000 per month to some higher amount.
The CM also refused the RJD's demand for the CBI probe into the Chhapra tragedy, stating that it has now become a fashion to demand CBI investigation after any such incident.