Palghar, Days after the death of a 7‑year‑old student of a residential school in Maharashtra’s Palghar, authorities launched a health screening drive to assess students’ condition and reviewed hygiene and other arrangements, officials said.
Meanwhile, local organisation Shramjeevi Sanghatana’s president Sita Ghatal visited the school and urged the state government to take over its management and convert it into a fully government-run facility. Following the incident, 30 students from the school showing symptoms of cold, cough and fever were kept under observation at different hospitals in the district, they said. A Class 1 student at the ashram school in Maswan developed high fever on August 22 and was taken to the local Primary Health Centre. On Wednesday, the Palghar Zilla Parishad’s health department launched a comprehensive screening drive at the school, which houses 395 resident students out of 449 total enrollees, and reviewed its hygiene, drinking water arrangements and medical response protocols.
The school superintendent was later suspended for “gross negligence” in the discharge of duties, and the Food and Drug Administration inspected the institution’s kitchen and collected grocery items for laboratory analysis. A Special Investigation Team has been constituted to conduct a detailed inquiry into the student’s death, fix responsibility and recommend preventive measures, officials earlier said. All remaining students at the school were stable and out of danger, they said.
The fever, however, returned on Monday, and he was shifted to the Rural Hospital in Manor, where doctors declared him dead, an official said earlier.
