Hyderabad: Telangana’s deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar on Tuesday, August 13, visited Peddapur Government Residential School in Jagtial district, where two students died, and some others fell sick during the last 15 days.
The deputy CM spoke to students and enquired about the cause of the death of Yedamalla Anirudh and Rajarapu Ganaditya, students of Class 6 and Class 7, respectively.
While Ganaditya (13) died on July 26, Anirudh (12) died on August 9. Though the exact reason for the sudden deaths is not yet known, snakebite and food poisoning were suspected to be among the reasons.
Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka consoled the families of the deceased children. He announced that the families of both the deceased students would be provided jobs. The deputy CM, who went around the premises and inspected various facilities, also promised to arrange beds and bedsheets for the residential school students.
Both the deputy CM and the state minister Ponnam Prabhakar spoke to the school’s in-charge principal Mahipal Reddy and enquired details about the death of two students and four others falling sick.
They asked the in-charge principal if medical check-up of students were being conducted every month. They also sought details about the facilities in the residential school, staff members and duty nurse.
He said the government was on alert following the recent incidents of students in residential schools falling sick. He said cleaning of all schools will be taken up under NREGS and paramedical staff will be deployed at every school. He asked every MLA and collector to inspect the government schools under their jurisdiction. He suggested that they have food with the students at least once every month and resolve the problems relating to food.
KTR visits victim’s family
Bhatti and Prabhakar visited the residential school a day after Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K T Rama Rao visited the residential school. He also stated that nearly 500 students were suffering various illnesses in government hostels. He said that a committee, led by BRS leader and former IPS officer R S Praveen Kumar, will be constituted to prepare a report, which will be submitted to the government.
KTR demanded that the government should ensure a government job for the family members of students who died in hostels. Recalling that the BRS government established 1,000 Gurukul residential schools, the former minister urged all district collectors to adopt these schools and inspect them at least once a week.
As many as six lakh students are currently studying in these schools. “Glad we have been able to push the Congress government out of its deep slumber that all is well in Gurukul hostels. Hope the Deputy CM & Govt will take all necessary steps to prevent loss of life and improve the quality of food being served across 1,000 plus Gurukuls established by KCR Government,’ his X post read.
