Class IX student drowns in an east Delhi stream; relatives blame the institution

'School's negligence killed my brother'

Class IX student drowns in an east Delhi stream; relatives blame the institution

A life down the drain and a school that's indifferent - that seems to be the tale of 16-year-old Rajesh Sahadev's unfortunate death. The class IX student of Rajkiya Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in Kalyanpuri, east Delhi, drowned in the nearby Hindon stream during school hours. However, the institution is claiming ignorance and has washed its hands off the incident.

There is no guard to stop them from going out. We are accommodating more students than is our capacity. There are more than 2000 students in our school. We are helpless, we can't force them to remain in the school premises, until and unless they are scared of us", said vice-principal, T P Singh.

"He was brought dead to our hospital. His stomach was swollen; he had consumed too much water," said an official at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital.u00a0u00a0

The incident took place at around 2:30 pm, while the school timings are from 10:30 am to 6:30 pm.
"I don't have any doubts; it's the school authority's fault. How can a student be missing during school hours? Nothing would have gone wrong if someone from the school administration had stopped them. When I asked them about my brother's whereabouts, they didn't have any idea. They were thinking he's still somewhere in school", said Devendra Kumar, Rajesh's brother.

"The whole incident took place because of the negligence of school authorities and its staff. We've lost a kid; we'll punish whoever is responsible for the incident. Both departmental and legal action will be taken against them," said Sunil Vedh, MLA of Kalyanpuri.

Rajkiya Sarvodiya Bal Vidyalaya is a CBSE-approved institution and has classes from 1 to 12. The school was started in the 1970s. According to a source, it is well known that there is a shortage of teachers. An eyewitness also said that the deceased was seen in school till 2pm on Monday; after that he left with a few friends.

"We saw him in school. At first the authorities denied that he was present but when we checked the class register, we found that his status had been changed from P (Present) to A( Absent). He was a regular student. There haven't been any proper classes since June 26. There are very few teachers; we come to class hoping to get some education but what we get is free hours with no one to guide us," disclosed a class IX student on condition of anonymity.

A police official said: "The stream is just behind the school. Every now and then an incident of drowning is reported from the area. Even grown men have drowned here in the past. We are trying to find the exact nature of the incident."

MURDER OF A PRINCIPAL

A 59-year-old primary school principal was allegedly robbed and then hacked to death at his quarters located inside the school premises in east Delhi on June 8. A retired engineer from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Jagan Singh Chauhan had established the Sanjay Memorial Public School at east Vinod Nagar's R block in 1983. Chauhan used to stay alone at his two-room quarters adjacent the upper kindergarten (UKG) block on the second storey.

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