Sukma collector orders inquiry after foul substance found in students’ food

Sukma district collector has constituted a three-member committee and ordered a probe into allegations of foul substance mixed in meals of tribal students residing at porta-cabin, a residential hostel in Bastar region. The incident took place on the night of Aug 21, when students were to be served food and as per regular practice the staff tasted it before. They smelled something pungent in the vegetable curry indicating mixture of a substance in it and the hostel superintendent decided to dispose off the food. As the matter came to light on Monday, district collector Devesh Kumar Dhruv ordered a probe. He said as per the allegations, it was suspected that something was not right with the food to be served. The case was reported at govt school of Pakela having a porta-cabin school­ which is a prefabricated educational center designed to provide education in conflict-affected areas where proper construction is difficult or unsafe due to Left Wing Extremism. Sukma collector Devesh Kumar Dhruv told TOI that as soon as he got the information on Monday, he constituted a three-member team and dispatched them to the site for investigation. “The team has returned on Tuesday and I expect to get a probe report by tonight or on Wednesday,” Dhruv said. The three-member probe committee headed by SDM Suraj Kashyap, rushed to the spot, recorded statements of students and staff, and confirmed that several children directly alleged a teacher of the residential school was responsible for mixing the chemical.It was confirmed by the team that no child consumed the contaminated food and all students are safe. However, the claims will be confirmed once the report is submitted, followed by an FIR in the case.According to Raju Ram Nag, a Congress worker who was outside the school amid heavy rainfall, “The students were ready to have food when the staff carried out routine practice of tasting food before serving it to students. As soon as a spoonful of beans curry reached their mouths, a strong, pungent smell resembling phenyl raised alarm.”Hostel superintendent Dujal Patel immediately ordered the cooked vegetables of about 48 kilograms to be destroyed and reported the matter to senior officials. “Had the food not been checked on time, 426 innocent lives could have been at risk,” Patel told reporters.Parents were left horrified. “How can someone be entrusted when conspiracies like these could happen to our children?” they asked standing outside the school gate.Rajesh Nag of Bastar Raj Morcha said, “We staged a road blockade against the issue,ue and no outsider was allowed to enter the school when we wanted to meet the students. They have locked the school and tried to suppress the matter for so many days, hence, we formed a probe committee on our level to raise the issue,”The incident has sparked outrage in Sukma’s tribal belt, where porta-cabin schools serve as lifelines for children in remote, Maoist-affected areas. These prefabricated schools were meant to ensure education for children otherwise deprived due to insurgency violence and destroyed infrastructure.Parents have questioned if it was not an attempt to poison food, it was an attack on the very idea of education and the lives of our children.