Raipur: The Chhattisgarh High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the incident of phenyl being found in the food of more than 400 students on August 21 at Pakela Porta Cabin Residential School in Sukma. The court has sought a response from the chief secretary. The police have detained the accused teacher and started questioning him. The food was destroyed after the incident. The Collector’s investigation committee has submitted the report to the district administration. The next hearing of the case will be on September 17.
The court termed the matter serious
The division bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Kumar Sinha and Justice Vibhu Dutt Guru of the High Court has termed the matter serious on the basis of media reports. The court has sought a response from the chief secretary of the state with a personal affidavit. The High Court has made a strong comment on this incident. The court said that phenyl was found in the food of 426 children. If any accident had happened, it would have been difficult to handle the situation. This is a very serious negligence and how is this happening? does no one pay attention?’
Earlier, leftover dog food served
In the middle school of Balodabazar also, on July 28 this year, leftover food of a stray dog was served to the children in the midday meal. Taking suo motu cognizance of this matter, the High Court had ordered to give compensation of Rs 25,000 each to the 84 affected children. The High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the Balodabazar and Sukma cases and has heard them.
Politics has also intensified in the matter
Phenyl was found in the food on the night of 21 August, after which the food was destroyed. The Collector’s investigation committee has submitted its report to the district administration. Recently, the investigation team formed by the Congress and representatives of the Bastariya Raj Morcha had reached the porta cabin.
