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Over 20 Dalit students at a government school in the Champawat district of Uttarakhand refused to eat mid-day meals cooked by an upper-caste woman after a cook belonging to the Scheduled Caste community was fired from the school, PTI reported.
However, on Sunday, 26 December, the district administration said that the issue had been resolved, and members of both communities had reached a consensus.
Earlier, 43 students belonging to the upper caste communities, studying in classes VI-VIII at the Government Inter College, Sukhi Dang, had refused to eat food cooked by a Dalit cook.
As a retaliatory measure, 23 Dalit students of the school refused to eat the mid-day meal prepared by the woman from the upper caste.
Tomar said that an inquiry into the matter was going on, and its report should be out in a week.
After the Dalit cook was fired, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Tamta said his party would launch an agitation to "restore the woman's Constitutional rights".
Meanwhile, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan said if the Dalit woman was not re-instated, his outfit would gherao Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.
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