Excreta in school tank: Dindigul SP directed to file action-taken report

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday directed the Dindigul Superintendent of Police, S Jeyakumar, to file a report on the action taken so far in the case of human excreta being mixed into the water tank used by students of the Manur Panchayat Union Primary School.

The Bench of Justices P Velmurugan and R Poornima also asked the Government Advocate to obtain instructions on whether CCTV cameras will be installed on drinking water tanks in schools to prevent such incidents.

The court issued the direction on a petition filed by T Balakrishnan of Madurai, who sought the constitution of an independent team to investigate the incident reported at the school.

The petitioner contended that the headmaster noticed the contamination when the staff checked the tank after the school reopened on October 5 following the quarterly examination holidays.

However, the petitioner said the headmaster did not inform the competent authority to register a criminal complaint or to ensure that material evidence was preserved. Instead, he allegedly cleaned the tank immediately to conceal the incident, an act the petitioner described as strongly condemnable.

The incident came to public attention only on October 8, when parents confronted the school staff. The petitioner sought appropriate action against the headmaster.

The petitioner also said that, according to a newspaper report, a similar incident had occurred at a Government Higher Secondary School at Thangampatti in Dindigul district. Such recurrence, he said, raised serious apprehension that government school children from marginalised communities were being subjected to deliberate acts intended to endanger their health and dignity.

He recalled the Vengaivayal incident in Pudukkottai district, where human faeces were found in a drinking water tank, causing widespread outrage across the state.

When the case came up for hearing, the State submitted that two students from the same locality had been identified as having mixed excreta in the tank, and that the investigation was underway.

The Bench observed that the mixing of excreta into drinking water tanks in schools had become routine, and said it was distressing that students from the same locality were involved. The court then adjourned the case.