Chief minister Nitish Kumar at the news meet on Wednesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, July 24: After eight days of silence, the chief minister has spoken — and wielded a magic wand.

Nitish Kumar today announced a special scheme to morph tragedy-struck Dharmasati-Gandaman into a model village — equipped with a high school, public health centre, all-weather road, drainage system, potable water and each and every conceivable facility to meet its development needs.

“It is not possible for me to return the life of the 23 children who died after eating poisonous food. But I will do everything possible to ensure that the poor people of Dharmasati-Gandaman live a decent life. I have taken the incident — the most heinous in my public life — as a challenge,” Nitish said, speaking for the first time on the tragedy that hit the Saran village on July 16.

The 23 children, all students of Gandaman Primary School, died after eating a midday meal.

Nitish, who addressed a news conference today at 1 Aney Marg, had so far remained silent on the tragedy, except to issue a terse press note on the evening of July 16, in which he expressed “shock”. Neither did he visit the village nor did he go to the Patna Medical College and Hospital, where those suffering from eating the meal laced with toxic insecticide are admitted.

The chief minister, who suffered a hairline fracture in the little toe of his left foot three days before the tragedy, said his absence from the place of the tragedy didn’t mean the administration had been late to respond.

“There can be a spell of my physical helplessness at some stage. I am a human being. But I am not required to learn a lesson in sensitivity from these people (read BJP and RJD leaders),” said Nitish, who came out wobbling with his feet wrapped in socks. “All the officials concerned, doctors and I have monitored the tragic incident at each and every stage.”

While announcing the slew of measures, Nitish said the money and logistics provided to run the midday meal scheme was “inadequate”. “It is a central scheme and as such the Centre must raise the overall infrastructure, funding, manpower and pay package for the workers involved to run it. You cannot hire a proper cook merely by paying Rs 1,000 per month to him or her,” he said.

He, however, said he was ready to offer his suggestions on improving the execution of the scheme if the Centre so wished. “It is not the time for blame game. The Centre and states should together work out a proper way to ensure its proper execution,” Nitish said.

But Nitish wasn’t quite prepared to accept responsibility for the tragedy. Though he didn’t use the word “conspiracy”, as bandied about by other leaders of his Janata Dal (United), the chief minister said the deaths were caused by “ill intention”.

“Whatever I have gathered from prima facie evidence, reports in newspapers and TV channels, besides the findings of political parties and others, clearly suggest that it was not merely a case of simple negligence and lapse. It appears to have been done with ill intention,” the chief minister said, pointing to the amount of pesticide used and its heavy concentration in the food.

However, Nitish was quick to add that the special investigation team formed to probe the tragedy will have the final say.

“The SIT will investigate the case keeping in view all possible angles. The forensic report has come out. The preliminary investigation reports too are there. Now, let the SIT carry out its thorough investigation. If I say something at this stage, it will amount to prejudicing the investigation,” he said. “Make no mistake…the culprits, whosoever they are, will be caught and brought to justice,” he added.