Boy’s death sparks students’ protest

Greater Noida: More than 300 students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV), in Dhoom Manikpur village of Dadri, protested against the school authorities for their alleged negligence in providing treatment to a Class VI student, who died on Monday evening.
Boycotting classes, the students demanded action against the nurse and the vice-principal of the school, which is a part of a chain of centrally run schools under the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, an autonomous body under the Union HRD ministry.
According to the students, Aditya Singh (12) was complaining of headache and pain in one of his ears since Friday.
It was the first year in this school for Aditya, who was from Chhapra in Bihar, was a hostelite staying in JNV's ‘Holding House’. Class XII student Anuj Gupta told TOI that Aditya was feeling unwell since Friday. “The nurse gave him some medicine but his condition deteriorated. On Sunday, the house master (warden), A K Tripathi, was also informed about his health issues,” Anuj said.
“When he did not get a vehicle from the school authorities to take Aditya to the hospital he took the child on his motorcycle to Dr K K Sharma’s clinic in Dadri,” Anuj said.
“He was given an injection and some tablets. However, Aditya’s condition deteriorated on Sunday evening. He fainted two to three times and his body turned stiff,” Harshit, a student, said.
The students alleged that while a driver was present at the school always, there is no vehicle for him to drive. According to them, on being told of Aditya’s condition on Monday morning, house master Tripathi again tried but failed to get a school vehicle.
Class XII student Ankit Kumar said that an ambulance arrived only after the physical education teacher called emergency number 108 on Monday morning. “Aditya was taken to Dadri’s Naveen Hospital, from where he was referred to the district hospital in Sector 30,” Ankit said.
The district hospital referred Aditya to LNJP Hospital in Delhi, where he died around 4pm on Monday evening.
When the news of Aditya’s death spread on the campus on Monday, the angry students protested. JNV Dadri’s assistant commissioner Mahendra Chaudhary visited the campus on Monday evening and tried to pacify the students, who demanded a written assurance that action would be taken.
“We found that the child was injected with Perinorm, which was the right medicine. An inquiry is under way,” he said.
The students submitted a memorandum to SDM Dadri Amit Kumar, who reached the school around 1pm on Tuesday. DM N P Singh ordered a magisterial probe into the case under SDM Amit Kumar.
Meanwhile, three PCR teams were deployed on the school campus at the behest of the school authorities, which further agitated the students.