Odisha government today ordered an administrative inquiry into the drowning of four school students while bathing at a Puri canal near Barang yesterday.
School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra asked Khurdha district sub-collector and District Education Officer to rush to the school and find out the reason behind the students skipping classes and taking bath in the canal.
Local MLA Priyadarsi Mishra and Minister Devi Mishra also visited the school at Chandrasekharpur in the capital city.
"The government will initiate action according to the outcome of the investigation," Mishra said adding that the Khurdha district administration has been asked to produce the probe report within 24 hours.
Around 14 students had gone to Puri-Baranga main canal near Hanuman Vatika for a bath on Tuesday afternoon. Four of them drowned in the deep water. The fire brigade team fished out three bodies by Tuesday night while another body was traced this morning, police said.
The deceased have been identified as Pratap Routray, Abhijeet Sabat, Manas Ranjan Nayak and Bablu Diggal. All of them were students of class IX of the Government High School at Rail Vihar in Chandrasekharpur in Bhubaneswar.
School authorities, however, claimed that the students had not attended classes yesterday and went to the canal for bathing without permission.
Meanwhile, the students of the Government High School, Chandrasekharpur, today mourned the incident and the classes remained suspended for the day.
