Patna: Tweenty two children died and 80 fell ill after consuming a mid-day meal at a primary school in Bihars Saran district on Tuesday.Most of them who died were younger than ten years of age.
Several children have died and many other fallen sick, allegedly as a result of food-poisoning from the free mid-day meal provided at their school near Chhapra in Bihar. Photo by Lallan Kumar Singh/Hindustan Times
Principal secretary, education, Amarjeet Sinha said, “We suspect it to be organo-phosphorous poisoning caused by insecticides.” He did not rule out the use of contaminated oil.
The Dharma Sati Gandaman village where the incident took place is 25km from the city of Chhapra, which falls in the constituency of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad. The party declared a bandh in Chhapra for Wednesday.
Hunt for the reason is still on
Doctors said the administration of atropine to affected children had been efficacious, which also points to insecticide contamination of the vegetable oil.
School teachers said only those children who consumed the potato-soyabean subzi were taken ill. Ten children who did not have the meal were not affected.
Various versions of how the food was stored are floating. While one section of teachers has told the Chhapra administration that it was kept in containers that may have been contaminated, others said that it was stored in an area where insecticide was kept. The forensic team has collected samples of the served food and is expected to issue a report soon.
The social welfare minister, Parveen Amanullah, said, “Even if the food was substandard, would it kill the children unless something poisonous was introduced in it?” The state education minister, PK Sahi, whose department handles the mid-day meal programme, said the state government was also investigating the possibility of a deliberate contamination leading to the deaths.
After Bodh Gaya, Tuesdays incident has also given friend-turned-foe BJP another stick with which to beat chief minister Nitish Kumar. State BJP leader Giriraj Singh said on Tuesday that Kumar has become more dangerous for the state than even Lalu.
Kumar has ordered a probe into the deaths and announced a compensation of Rs. 2 lakh for the family of each of the dead. The district magistrate said the scheme’s coordinator for the school has been suspended.
