U’khand: Sacked Dalit cook reappointed, 31 booked for issuing threats, casteist remarks

PTI, Dec 31, 2021, 6:25 PM IST

ADalit woman cook was reappointed at a Champawat school in Uttarakhand, days after she was sacked as some students belonging to upper castes refused to eat midday meal cooked by her. Police have lodged a case against 31 people, six of which have been named in the FIR, for issuing threats and making casteist comments against her.

The issue had snowballed into a controversy and the state government had earlier ordered a probe into it.

Demanding justice for her, the Uttarakhand SC/ST Commission had also threatened to approach the court.

She was reappointed by the school’s management committee, which met on Friday, Champawat’s Chief Education Officer R C Purohit said.

”The decision to reappoint her was taken on the basis of a government order which says that if a consensus is not reached in such cases, candidates from SC/ST or OBC communities should be given priority,” he added.

Twenty-one of 26 members of the school management committee were present at the meeting but all of them were not of the same view. As a consensus could not evolve, the decision was taken on the basis of the government order. After the sacking of Sunita Devi, Purohit had earlier said there were ”procedural lapses” in her appointment.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had ordered a inquiry into the case. Police have registered a case against 31 people under the SC/ST Act and Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC on the basis of a complaint lodged by Sunita Devi. Six of those booked have been identified as Mahesh Chaurakoti, Deepa Joshi, Bablu Gehtori, Satish Chandra, Nagendra Joshi and Shankar Dutt while 25 others are unknown persons, Champawat Superintendent of Police Devendra Pincha, said.