The journalist was struggling to pay for his treatment and there were several public appeals from journalists to crowdfund for his medical bills.
All India Edited by
Akhil Kumar Updated: May 05, 2022 4:26 pm IST
New Delhi : Uttar Pradesh journalist Pawan Jaiswal, who was in 2019
charged with conspiracy for filming students at a government school in Mirzapur eating rotis with salt as their midday meal, today died after a prolonged battle with mouth cancer. The journalist was struggling to pay for his treatment and there were several public appeals in the past month from journalists to crowdfund for his medical bills.
The video Mr Jaiswal shot, was from the Siur primary school in Jamalpur block of Mirzapur and showed young children sitting on the floor of the school corridor, eating rotis with salt under a flagship scheme of the central government.
The district administration had filed a police case against him, even when it acted on his information and swiftly suspended the teacher in charge of the school and the supervisor at the gram panchayat.
In the complaint to police, Block Education Officer of the area had accused Mr Jaiswal and a representative of the local village head of a conspiracy to defame the Uttar Pradesh government.
On the case filed against him, Pawan Jaiswal said in a video that anybody could verify the facts of the story. "I was informed several times about the irregularities in the mid-day meal in the school. Sometimes the children were being given salt and rotis and sometimes salt and rice. On August 22, when I shot the video, a person called me and I went to the school. Before going there, I called the assistant basic shiksha adhikari Brajesh Kumar Singh and told him I was going to the school," Mr Jaiswal said.
"After shooting the first video at around 12 pm, I called local reporters who spoke to the district magistrate. The DM went there and conducted an inquiry and suspended people. Now, a case has been filed against me because questions were asked from these people. This is an attack on journalism. Everyone is welcome to verify the facts of the story," he added.
The Editors Guild of India had condemned the state government's action and urged it to withdraw the cases. It also urged that the journalist is not harmed or harassed.
BJP leader Manoj Tiwari
had then said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government should honour Mr Jaiswal for exposing the corruption.
Mr Jaiswal was later given a clean chit by the government in the case.
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Jamahir's comment : This is modern India where the 60+ million street dogs in India are well-protected and don't go hungry but school students who because of artificial poverty aren't able to obtain nutritious food like egg at home aren't also able to obtain nutritious food at school. Is the the comfortable India that Modi spoke about in Berlin a few days ago, eh
@Sharma Ji ?
Additionally, the journalist wasn't able to obtain medical treatment for his mouth cancer because he didn't have the money to pay for it because healthcare isn't free in India. He died not because there is no treatment for mouth cancer in India but because he didn't have the artificial construct called money. This is not death but murder by the system. Is this the Vishwaguru ( Teacher to the world ) India that Modi told some international leaders in the beginning of 2021 ?
And
@INDIAPOSITIVE, weren't you pointing to other countries not being in that press freedom ranking ? This brave and conscientious Indian journalist was jailed by next-PM-candidate Yogi for reporting truth.
@Mentee @fitpOsitive @Bilal9 @Joe Shearer
@-=virus=-, still will write poems and blow the been about Capitalism ?
