A five-year-old in Telangana succumbed to burns, after a rush for the mid-day meal in his school, resulted in him falling into a vessel filled with hot sambar on Friday.
According to reports, Jayavardhan, was a Class I student studying at a government school at Eedaluru in Nalgonda district.
He was standing second in line for the meal and students jostling for space behind him, is said to have resulted in the accident.
“The boy, who suffered 70% burns was initially taken to a government hospital in Nalgonda and later shifted to a state-run hospital in Hyderabad,” Nakrekal police station circle inspector A Vishwaprasad told PTI.
He was shifted to the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad, where he succumbed to his injuries on Saturday morning.
"Though the vessel was partly covered by a lid, it slid sideways resulting in him falling into the hot liquid. A measure as simple as placing the vessels behind a bench would have prevented the death as no one could have gotten close to them," a police officer told TOI.
District collector Gaurav Uppal has since suspended the school's headmaster and one teacher, and also has announced a Rs 2 lakh ex gratia, a government job to a member of the boy's family and a 2BHK house as compensation.
A case of negligence has also been filed with Katangoor police station by the boy's grandfather, against three cooks in the school.
Meanwhile, locals and NGOs demanded that the compensation be increased.