Ahmedabad, Feb 3 (PTI) The Gujarat Education Department has ordered a probe into an alleged incident in which a Class 6 student of a private school in Ahmedabad secretly put naphthalene balls in a classmate’s water bottle in what appears to be a prank, officials said on Tuesday.
The affected student did not consume the water after noticing a foul smell. As a precaution, school authorities took him to a hospital. He was found to be fine and returned to school the next day.
The incident took place on January 28 at the school located in Maninagar area. District Education Officer (DEO) Rohit Chaudhary issued a show-cause notice to the school and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 for alleged negligence and for failing to report the matter to authorities in time.
“A student had mixed naphthalene balls into the water battle of his classmate. When the other student opened the bottle to drink water after some time, he noticed a strange smell was emanating from it. School authorities rushed him to a hospital as a precautionary measure. Since he was alright, he came to school the next day,” said state Education Minister Pradyuman Vaja.
While the DEO has already sought an explanation from the school, we have also initiated an inquiry and sought a report,” Vaja told reporters in Gandhinagar.
In a CCTV footage that went viral on social media platforms, a student can be seen mixing something into the water bottle of another student sitting next to him.
In the show-cause notice, the DEO cited serious lapses in ensuring student safety and said the school failed to inform his office about the incident, which is mandatory in such cases.
The DEO said that maintaining the welfare of students is the primary responsibility of school administrators and institutions are required to ensure proper supervision of children.
“It appears that an attempt was made to suppress the incident instead of reporting it immediately,” the notice said, directing the school to submit a detailed report along with CCTV footage.
The DEO said the school has been directed to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 under the provisions of the Right to Education Act.
“It seems the student had mixed naphthalene balls into the water bottle as a prank. Luckily, the other student did not consume water and alerted the class teacher about the foul smell,” said Chaudhary. PTI PJT PD NSK
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