The two-member high-level committee comprising Divisional Commissioner of Saran and Deputy Inspector General of Police has submitted its report to the State Government, accusing the headmistress of Gandaman Primary School, Meena Kumari of gross negligence, leading to the death of 23 children who had consumed midday meal at the school under Masrakh area in Saran district on last Tuesday.
An FIR has already been registered against Meena Kumari who is evading arrest since the tragedy struck Gandaman village. She has been booked under Section 302 (murder) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC.
The Government has also issued a show-cause notice to another teacher, Kalpana Kumari who was absent from her duty on the day of the incident without prior permission. Block Resource Person, Satyendra Kumar who was responsible for monitoring the mid-day meal scheme at the school has also been removed after the submission of the report by the committee.
Meanwhile, the police conducted raids at the house of Meena Kumari at Gandaman village on Friday. They entered into her house through the roof of her house as it was locked from outside and seized a school register, a container whose base was oily and other grocery items for investigation.
The angry villagers at Gandaman partially smashed windows of her house on Friday, Many of the midday meal victims, aged six to 10 had been laid to rest on a playing field adjacent to the primary school.
The much awaited report from Forensic Science laboratory, Patna was not received on Friday and the Principal Secretary (Education Department) Amarjeet Sinha claimed that it would be available on Saturday.
The postmortem reports on midday meal victims have, however, confirmed that insecticide was either present in the food or in the cooking oil.
One day after the incident, State Education Minister PK Shahi said that a preliminary investigation suggested that the food served to the children contained an organophosphate used as an insecticide on rice and wheat crops.
Sinha reiterated that the Centre had not issued any alert to the State on the quality of the mid-day meal being served though it has advised them to increase the coverage of the scheme. These measures include tagging schools which have no buildings and cooking arrangement with the nearest schools which have such facilities.
School notice boards are ordered to display the money spent on preparation of mid-day meal on a particular day for bringing transparency.