The principal of the primary school, Purshottam Gupta, said children do “have some feeling of discrimination”. (ANI) The principal of the primary school, Purshottam Gupta, said children do “have some feeling of discrimination”. (ANI)

The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered an inquiry after a video purportedly showing Dalit students eating mid-day meals separately from other students at a primary school went viral on social media.

Ballia District Magistrate Dr Bhawani Singh Khangaraut visited the school on Thursday morning after the video showed general and backward caste students carrying their own utensils and refusing to use the plates provided by the school as Dalit students use them.

“Prima facie there is no basis to reports of discrimination with Dalit students in the school. However, a detailed inquiry by a joint magistrate level officer is being ordered to look into the matter in detail,” Khangaraut was quoted as saying by PTI.

However, principal of the primary school, Purshottam Gupta, said children do “have some feeling of discrimination”.

Expressing concern over the incident, BSP chief Mayawati tweeted, “The news of Dalit students being made to sit separately and eat in a government school in Ballia is most condemnable and sad. The BSP demands that the state government immediately take strict legal action against the perpetrators of such disgusting racist discrimination so that others get a lesson and such cases do not recur.”

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