By F M Britto
Raipur, Dec 2, 2019: The public protested against a Catholic school in Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh state, after two students drowned during school picnic.
Alleging negligence from the school staff, the public demanded the arrest of the teachers who had accompanied the picnicking students. But due to intervention of the local government officials, they were pacified when the Jesus, Mary and Joseph nuns, running the Bharat Mata School at Tatibandh, Raipur, apologized for the lapse and gave a compensation of 1.6 million rupees each to the two deceased boys’ families.
On their demand the police filed an FIR on the negligence of the school authorities. “After receiving the compensation, they were supposed to withdraw the case; but we are not sure whether they have withdrawn it or not,” Tatibandh parish priest Father John Y. David told Matters India on December 2.
Khushdeep Sandhu,15, and Aman Shukla, 14, of ninth grade got drowned in the Mahanadi river when the 170 students went for the picnic, accompanied by 15 teachers on Nov 30 to Sirpur, 50 km away. A board on the spot warned it as a dangerous zone and forbade anyone bathing there. And the patrolling police too forbade the teachers and students from going there, just a few minutes before the tragedy occurred. It is alleged both the boys did not know swimming either.
When these two boys were found missing around lunch time, the police and the teachers searched and with the help of the local villagers fished them out. When they were brought to the nearby Tumgaon town health center, the doctors pronounced them brought dead.
A day earlier, some 190 girl students from the school had picnicked at the same place. Sirpur is a place of archeological importance with many Hindu and Buddhist temples on the bank of Mahanadi River. Saturdays and Sundays draw huge crowds.
It was about 9 p.m. when the bodies were brought to the school and a big crowd that gathered there started protesting against the school authorities. The police personnel protected the high ranking English medium school situated on the outskirts of Raipur city.
An amicable settlement was done between the bereaved family members and the school management on Dec 1 noon by the police personnel and the local legislator Vikas Upadhyay. The JMJ nuns also promised the crowd that they would take care that such incidents do not occur in future.
The last rites of the deceased students were performed only after the amicable settlement.
The school was reopened on Dec 2 with police protection.
Condoling the death, state Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel gave a compensation of 400,000 rupees each to the two bereaved families.
According to the local Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar, seven deaths have occurred at that picnic spot in last three years.