The Odisha government has halted salary payments to five teachers and issued show-cause notices to other staff members of a state-run high school in Rayagada district following a fire incident that injured four students.

School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond said he had directed the department secretary to submit a detailed report and ordered a departmental inquiry to determine whether there was any negligence.

The students sustained burn injuries while playing around a fire during school hours on Monday.

“The department has stopped the salaries of five teachers and issued show-cause notices to other staff members in connection with the incident,” Gond said on Tuesday, adding that further action would follow if negligence was established.

School and Mass Education Secretary N Thirumala Naik said three students were being treated at a hospital in Rayagada, while one critically injured student had been shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.

The school headmaster lodged a complaint at Muniguda police station, where statements of the injured students have been recorded.

Preliminary findings indicate that a classmate allegedly threw colour thinner, an inflammable substance, onto a fire that had been lit by the students on the school building’s balcony.

Muniguda police station inspector Saudamini Behera said the students were playing on the school roof around 2 pm when they found a bottle of thinner stored there. They allegedly poured it on the floor and ignited it with a matchstick. One student later added more thinner, causing the flames to flare up and injure four students.

Inputs from PTI

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