Four-year-old LKG girl V. Malathi had a gory end drowning in her
school septic tank that had been carelessly left uncovered at
Uthangarai, about 75 km from here,
According to the
police, Malathi was returning to her class after visiting the toilet
when she slipped and fell into the open septic tank in Christ
Matriculation School. Her teacher found her missing for a long
time and alerted the others, following which a search was launched.
It was then that Malathi’s brother Praveen, a UKG student, told the
staff that he saw her fall into the septic tank. Teachers and others
ran to the tank and found the girl in it, but their attempts to rescue
her failed, police said.
The death of the child due to such
criminal negligence on the part of the school management, which appears
to be flourishing since inception in 1991, has angered the parents and
the public. The tragedy has jolted the government as well. In Chennai,
school education secretary Ms D Sabitha told DC that she had sought a
detailed report on the incident from the district chief education
officer. “This is tragic, very sad. We have sent several circulars to
all the schools detailing guidelines for the safety and security of the
students, yet such mishaps are happening”, she said.
Teachers
said the school called fire service and informed the police after the
girl was found. Firemen recovered the dead body of Malathi from the
septic tank. Krishnagiri district revenue officer C Pragasam visited the
school and after conducing enquiry, held the school authorities guilty
of dangerous negligence in leaving the septic tank open. The school
has about 1100 students up to 12th class.
Based on the DRO’s
preliminary findings, police arrested school’s correspondent Stephen
Das, his sister and principal Mercy and her husband K.Prabakaran, the
administrative officer. School warden R. Ramesh was also arrested. All
the four were produced before Uthangarai magistrate who remanded them to
15 days custody, police said.
