Patna: Nearly 3 lakh primary school teachers in Bihar will hold a protest on Thursday, demanding the central mid day meal scheme be discontinued. Late night parleys to convince them have failed.
The protest comes over a week after 23 children died after eating a mid day meal in their school in Chappra. The teachers association claims their repeated requests to transfer the responsibility of mid day meals to an external agency have been ignored.
Meanwhile, Meena Devi, the principal of the Chhapra school in Bihar, surrendered on Wednesday before the police. Her husband Arjun Prasad Yadav, a co-accused, is still absconding. Earlier on Wednesday, she had moved an anticipatory bail petition in the court through her advocate. But her bail application was rejected by the court and she later surrendered at the Rabil Ganj police station. She is being interrogated by the police at a Chhapra police station.
Senior Bihar Police officials including Saran Superintendent of Police Sujeet Kumar claimed that Meena Devi was arrested even though she walked into a police station to give herself up. If a person wants to surrender he or she has to do so in a court and if the person walks into a police station then technically it is an arrest.
The local administration had also put up a court notice at the house of Meena Devi after she fled following the tragic incident. Twenty-three children lost their lives after eating poisonous mid day meal at a government school in Chhapra. The Bihar government had on Tuesday announced the formation of an 8-member Special Investigation Team to look into the tragedy. Blood samples of four children who are in a critical condition were also sent to Mumbai.
Bihar Police had said that traces of pesticide were found in the mid day meals that claimed 23 lives in Chhapra. According to Bihar Police spokesperson Ravindra Kumar a forensic test found pesticide monocrotophos in the cooking oil that was used to prepare the meals.
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