Jamshedpur, Jan 25: 13-year-old school boy died and 12 other boys fell seriously ill due to suffocation from generator smoke at a hall in school building at Barakadal village in Rajnagar block of Seraikela-Kharsawn district. The victim was identified as Shankar Besra, a resident of Barakadal village.
The others who fell sick were rushed to the Tata Main Hospital, where their condition is said to be stable. According to information the students were celebrating Saraswati Puja at their school yesterday.
“We are in state of shock and it’s a case of negligence. As per our information during the Saraswati, the boys in the school hall, students of class VII and VIII had kept a generator set as a stand-by arrangement as the power tripping was frequent in that area. Late in the night, the power tripped, leading some of the students who stayed in the school hall started the generator set. Fearing that the generator set will be stolen, they had shifted it inside the hall, and they all had fallen sleep without turning the generator set off,” narrated one of the parents.
According to him, the school’s peon Judhistir Mardi who stayed at the school premises had opened the door of the hall to find all the 13 students sleeping.
“When tried to wake up them, no one responded. Then only he realised that there must be something wrong. He immediately informed the school’s headmaster Ram Tuddu who stayed nearby. It was after the headmaster was informed that the sick students were taken to the MGM Medical College and Hospital at Sakchi at about 8.30 am,” he said. The 12 other students who were admitted to Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur were all students of class-VIII and class-IX.
Seraikela-Kharsawan district superintendent of police Durga Oraon confirmed about the death of one of the 13 school boys falling seriously ill due to smoke of gen-set inside a closed hall of a government middle school at Rajnagar.
Seraikela MLA, Champai Soren visited the sick school boys at the Tata Main Hospital. Soren also visited the MGM Medical College and Hospital where the body of Besra was kept. Police said the body will be sent to the MGM Medical College mortuary for post-mortem.