Patna: A widow who was fired from her job as chef in a school in Bihar has been reinstated by the district magistrate.
The widow, Urmila Devi, got back her job on Tuesday after the local Aurangabad district magistrate, Kanwal Tanuj, visited the school and conducted an inquiry. He also ate food with the schoolchildren, sitting cross-legged on the ground and being served by none other than the widowed cook.
The widow worked at Batura Middle School in Rafiganj block in southern Bihar’s Aurangabad district where she cooked midday meals for schoolchildren.
“Dismissing the woman as cook for being a widow is a very serious matter and highly condemnable. I have reinstated her to her previous job after her charges were found to be true,” the district magistrate said on Wednesday.
The official also ordered for registration of a criminal case against the principal while placing him under suspension for his act.
The official acted when the widow rushed to him for help after no one showed any interest in her tale of dismissal. According to her complaint, she had been working as cook for a long time, but was suddenly dismissed from her job by the school principal, Shiv Govind Prasad, in 2013 after her husband died. She asked for clemency but another cook, Ramkeval Yadav, was appointed to the post.
Subsequently, she petitioned local officials but no one took any interest in her case. She then went to the district magistrate on Monday.
