Patna:
He has not yet visited the village about an hour away from Patna where 23 children died after being fed a poisoned lunch at their school last week, but Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has finally commented on the tragedy.
He told party workers from his Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) on Monday that the mid-day meal was deliberately laced with pesticide.
So far, his government's response has baffled his supporters and emboldened his critics to profess that the man, usually credited as a high achiever of development, has failed his state in a moment of extreme need.
"Nitish Kumar is shamelessly taking cover in the political conspiracy theory," said the BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy. "Why hasn't he visited the families?"
Those families in the village of Gandamal in Chhapra district have been ruptured by the unalloyed negligence that took so many young lives. But Education Minister PK Shahi says a repeat cannot be ruled out. "As a minister, how can I guarantee that in 72,000 schools across the state, there won't be any poison in the food if somebody is hell bent on doing so," he said.
The headmistress of the school, Meena Devi, and her husband are missing; he allegedly supplied the groceries for the fatal lunch.
A Special Investigation Team of eight senior administrative and police officials has been formed to investigate the case. (Read)
The Chief Minister told his party on Monday that his two political rivals - Lalu Prasad, who heads the Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, and the BJP are colluding to extract political mileage from the Chhapra deaths as well as the 10 serial blasts that shattered the peace at the pilgrimage site at Bodh Gaya on a Sunday morning earlier this month.
The Chief Minister recently ended a 17-year alliance with the BJP, and since then, both sides have traded an entourage of angry accusations.
He told party workers from his Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) on Monday that the mid-day meal was deliberately laced with pesticide.
So far, his government's response has baffled his supporters and emboldened his critics to profess that the man, usually credited as a high achiever of development, has failed his state in a moment of extreme need.
"Nitish Kumar is shamelessly taking cover in the political conspiracy theory," said the BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy. "Why hasn't he visited the families?"
Those families in the village of Gandamal in Chhapra district have been ruptured by the unalloyed negligence that took so many young lives. But Education Minister PK Shahi says a repeat cannot be ruled out. "As a minister, how can I guarantee that in 72,000 schools across the state, there won't be any poison in the food if somebody is hell bent on doing so," he said.
The headmistress of the school, Meena Devi, and her husband are missing; he allegedly supplied the groceries for the fatal lunch.
A Special Investigation Team of eight senior administrative and police officials has been formed to investigate the case. (Read)
The Chief Minister told his party on Monday that his two political rivals - Lalu Prasad, who heads the Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD, and the BJP are colluding to extract political mileage from the Chhapra deaths as well as the 10 serial blasts that shattered the peace at the pilgrimage site at Bodh Gaya on a Sunday morning earlier this month.
The Chief Minister recently ended a 17-year alliance with the BJP, and since then, both sides have traded an entourage of angry accusations.
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