No dinner at Bihar school hostel, 55 girls run away. Jamui admin orders probe

Seema Kumari, the Jamui distinct programme officer of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, has been told to hold an inquiry into the incident at the KGBV

JAMUI: Twenty of the 55 students who ran away from a state-run residential school in Bihar’s Jamui district have returned to the hostel by Monday morning, a government official said. The girls ran from the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Sono block of the district past Saturday midnight after the authorities failed to serve dinner.

It is not clear why the hostel authorities were not able to serve dinner to the students (HT File Photo)

Jamui district education officer Kapil Dev Tiwari said Seema Kumari, the district programme officer of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, has been told to hold an inquiry.

The girls were classes 9-12 students.

Seema Kumari confirmed that the girls ran away because there was no dinner on Saturday night, “About 20 girls have returned till Monday morning,” she said, describing the incident as a security lapse.

“We are trying to bring all the girls back to the hostel,” said Prashant Kumar, who is officiating as the school principal.

Hostel warden Guddi Kumar said the girls were angry on Saturday night because there was no dinner. “We tried to pacify their anger till 2am and later went to sleep,” she said, adding that the girls would have walked out of the hostel after opening the gate after 2am. Avinash Kumar, the guard, said he had dozed off when the girls walked out.

Among the 20 girls who returned on Monday was Sonali Kumari. She said this was not the first time that there was no dinner at the hostel and there had been several instances in the past where students were called upon to help with the cooking.

“We were hungry and a hungry person can commit any sin,” added another student, Khushboo Kumari

The students, who accused the authorities of corruption and mismanagement, said they were forced to pay ₹2,200 as hostel charges though the government capped the fee at ₹1,600.