DEATH SPARKS PROTESTS ACROSS MANSA
MANSA: The family of Karan Prasad (13), a student of a government middle school who died after consuming folic acid tablet, on Friday refused to cremate the boy, demanding strict action against the “erring teacher”.
Backed by the members of CPI(ML) Liberation, the family has been protesting for the past two days at the civil hospital premises and has not allowed the health department to conduct postmortem of the victim.
Karan Prasad, who studied in Class-8 at the government middle school in Uddat Bhagat Ram village, was given folic acid tablets on Thursday as part of school health programme of the state government.
His father, Mukesh, alleged that their son was given overdose of the tablet after which his health deteriorated and he died later due to liver failure.
SCHOOL DENIES NEGLIGENCE
Teachers at the government school denied any wrongdoing and said the student’s health might have deteriorated due to other reasons.
“We are well trained in distributing these tablets and no other student complained of medical complication after taking the tablet,” said Harpreet Kaur, acting principal of the school.
Meanwhile, chief medical officer Renu Sood said the health department has conducted a probe through a four-member committee which has not found anyone responsible for the child’s death.
ADMN FAILS TO BREAK ICE
Deputy commissioner Dharam Pal Gupta, who met the victim’s family and a teachers’ union, failed to strike a compromise between them.
Mansa SDM Latif Ahmad, who visited the school and interacted with the students, claimed that the child was not given more than one tablet of the folic acid.
“The child was not given overdose of the folic acid tablet. The reason of the death can be ascertained only after the postmortem report. So far, we have not been able to convince the family to lift their protest,” the SDM said.
Meanwhile, the deputy commissioner has offered a compensation of Rs 50,000 to the victim’s family, which they declined to accept.