9 Odisha students suspended after ‘liquor pouches found’ in hostel; parents decry action

A major controversy has erupted over the discovery of liquor pouches at hostel No. 3 of PM Shri government high school at Manigaon under Papadahandi block of Nabarangpur district. Following the incident, nine students have been suspended for a week, allegedly for storing liquor in the hostel, sources said on Sunday.

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However, the suspension has triggered strong dissatisfaction among parents, who claim the punishment is unjustified.

According to the parents, no intoxicating substance was found in the inmates during the investigation. The school students have also denied the allegations, stating that they discovered the liquor pouches after returning from Dussehra holidays and promptly reported it to the hostel authorities. Allegedly, the inmates are being blamed for it instead.

The school headmaster allegedly forced the students to sign on plain paper and proceeded with their suspension. Parents argue that this action was taken without proper evidence or procedure.

The students have been suspended after the discovery of liquor pouches and the smell of cigarettes in the hostel. However, questions remain about who brought the alcohol, why, and how it was smuggled into the hostel.

Since the matriculation exams are approaching, both students and parents have expressed their dissatisfaction with such disciplinary action.

It is said that the headmaster sensed the smell of cigarettes and later discovered liquor pouches in hostel rooms. Upon this discovery, he called the students' parents to the school on October 17 and conducted an investigation.

Even though the inmate students claimed they neither consumed alcohol nor knew anything about it, the headmaster allegedly intimidated the parents by saying, “your children are consuming alcohol”, and forced the students to sign a statement.

“We had cleaned our hostel rooms before the Dussehra holidays and gone home. When we returned, school authorities said liquor pouches had been found in our rooms. Following this, on the 17th, the headmaster called our parents and asked them to take us home,” a suspended inmate expressed.

Based on this, nine students from classes 9 and 10 were suspended from the hostel. This has led to discontent among the parents and students, who argue that such strict action could negatively impact the young students' minds.

Meanwhile, Papadahandi Welfare Extension Officer (WEO) Debabrata Parida has stated that the students were creating disorder in the hostel, and disciplinary action was therefore necessary.

“It is part of a warning, so that they would mend their ways. They would return after they realise their mistakes. Some of the inmates had been frequently smoking inside a room in the hostel that they had kept closed. They were also taking liquor,” the WEO stated to OTV when contacted.

The incident has raised questions over the hostel’s internal management and the fairness of the disciplinary process.