JULY 18- The death toll in the mid-day meal tragedy in Saran rose to 22 on Wednesday even as 50 more children fell ill after eating contaminated food served under the scheme in a government school in Madhubani district of Bihar.
The food was served to students of Navtolia Middle School, Bisfi, about 22 km from Madhubani. The students alleged that the meal had a dead lizard in it.
Around 50 students complained of stomach ache and began vomiting after eating the mid-day meal. They were rushed to Bisfi Health Centre, said medical officer in-charge A.K. Prabhat. All the students are out of danger, he added.
The state government is suspecting a lethal pesticide, organo-phosphorous, to be the reason behind the deaths of schoolchildren in Saran. State education minister P.K. Shahi said: “The symptoms of the children admitted to hospital suggest that they had been poisoned.”
He hinted at a political conspiracy behind the tragedy, which triggered a political row in the state. RJD vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should sack Shahi from his ministry for his irresponsible remarks.
In the tragedy-hit Gandaman Dharmasati village in Saran, meanwhile grieving parents buried their children in front of the school where they had consumed the ‘poisonous’ mid-day meal a day earlier.
Villagers said lives of many children could have been saved had the government hospitals been well-equipped. Suresh Singh, a relative of one of the children who died, said precious time was lost in transporting the sick students from the village school to the Patna Medical College and Hospital.
INDIA TODAY
