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Bihar mid-day meal horror: Govt promises storage rooms, kitchen sheds in schools

Doctors said it was a case of gastritis and the children were out of danger.

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A day after 23 kids died in Bihar's Sarna district and 15 fell sick in Madhubani after consuming midday meal, 34 children from an adivasi ashram school at Taukheda, about 50 km from Dhule, suffered from diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea after drinking contaminated water.

Doctors said it was a case of gastritis and the children were out of danger.

District health officer Arvind More, who led a team of doctors to the school run by the Kasturbabai Adivasi Ashram, said 34 children — 21 boys and 13 girls — were affected by what he suspected to be a case of gastritis caused by drinking contaminated water.

"Three of the children who were serious have been admitted to the Dhule civil hospital and seven are receiving treatment at a government health centre in Nardana. For the remaining 24 children, we have converted one of the ashram rooms into an emergency ward and they are being treated there."

A total of 376 children stay at the ashram.

However, More denied that it was a case of food poisoning. He said if that was the case all the 376 children who consumed the food would have been affected.

The incident comes just a day after 22 children dies after consuming mid-day meal at a state-run primary school in Bihar's Saran district.

Confirming the deaths, Principal Secretary, education, Amarjeet Sinha said that he suspected the deaths occurred by organo phosphorous poisoning caused due to traces of insecticides.

In past, dead lizards, frogs, insects and a rat were found in the food cooked for the mid-day meal, angering students and parents.

Latest updates for Bihar midday meal tragedy

* Amardeep Sinha, Principal Secretary, Bihar, said the government would build kitchen sheds and storage rooms to ensure proper implementation of midday meal schemes.

However, he also said that there are 13,500 schools where there is no land to construct a kitchen shed.

* Confirming the death of 23 children in the Bihar midday meal tragedy Amardeep Sinha, Principal Secretary,Bihar said that the case seemed to be one of ‘poisoning of food’ and not ‘food poisoning’.

* Jolted by the midday meal tragedy in Saran which claimed the lives of 23 children, Bihar government is set to issue stringent instructions for quality check and improving infrastructural facilities.

"The notice for strict quality check of food served under midday meal scheme in schools across Bihar will be issued either today or tomorrow," director, midday meal programme, R Lakshamanan said.

He said inquiries into the Saran tragedy has revealed that standing orders like quality check of food and its maintenance by teachers and cooks were not observed in the Dharmasati Gandavan primary school. —PTI

 Doctors attending to the children presently recuperating at the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) here on Thursday said that the condition of most kids was now improving.

* PMCH Superintendent Dr Amarkant Jha, who assessed the health condition of the children here, said that apart from one child, who was still critical, the condition of all other children was stable and improving.

“All the children are slowly stabilizing. A total 27 patients were brought to this hospital, of which two died. Among the remaining 25, one is a lady and the rest are children. Of the 24 children, 23 are completely out of danger, one is still critical, his condition is a little better today, but we hope his health improves tomorrow. But 24 are completely out of danger,” he told the media in Patna. —ANI

* Postmortem reports on children who died this week after eating a school lunch in Bihar confirmed that insecticide was either in the food or cooking oil, a doctor said on Thursday.

* Results of the chemical analysis of the ingredients seized from the school are still pending.

* Two days after 60 children fell sick and 23 died after consuming midday meals in Bihar, the Bihar Police have been unable to trace the headmistress of the school Meena Kumari.

Speaking to Reuters, police officials said there were many different versions of what happened at the school on Tuesday.

“We have made no arrests so far as we are waiting for forensic reports which will help us piece together the entire investigation,” Sujit Kumar, superintendent of police in Chapra district, where Gandaman village is located said.

* The Bihar police on Thursday raided the residence of school Principal Meena Kumari and found cans of insecticides.

* “We found two containers filled with insecticide in the headmistress’s house along with pulses, vegetables and rice allotted for the midday meals,” a police officer said.

* Kumari, who is missing, has been suspended from her post and an FIR has been filed against her.

* School children in Bihar have refused to consume midday meals following the death of at least 23 children in the state.

* Human Resource and Development Minister MM Pallam Raju on Thursday said the government will soon set-up a quality check committee to ensure food served under the midday meal scheme was healthy.


“Whatever happened was unfortunate.. we need to strengthen the scheme and ensure better implementation,” Raju said.

 

The minister also said that alerts were issued to Bihar over complaints on the quality of food being served but the state did not take action.

He also said that once the forensic report is out, it will be clear what the cause of death was and necessary action would be taken.

* Nitish Kumar's Bihar government has released a prominent ad in newspapers instructing school principals and cooks in the state to first taste the mid-day meal before it is served to children.

* Officials in charge of checking the meals will also have to taste the food and record the quality.

* The newspaper ads were published a day after 50 children in the neighbouring district of Madhubani were rushed to hospital on Wednesday afternoon after the mid-day meal at school left them sick. None were seriously ill, said officials.
 
* No arrests in Chhapra yet, where 22 children, most of them under ten years of age, have died after eating contaminated lunch at school.

* The principal of the school has managed to evade the police so far.

* The midday meal fed to children in Saran district of Bihar were cooked in an insecticide container, as reported by Hindustan Times.

The report quotes a student as saying that the cook, who also died, refused to use the container, but was made to by the headmistress, Meena Devi. Devi has been suspended and an FIR has been filed against her.

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* Former Bihar cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian has demanded that Bihar Education Minister PK Sahi and CM Nitish Kumar step down over the mid-day meal horror.

“I think the time has come, that instead of ministers talking through their hats before inquiries, they should now take responsibility and resign, saying that in my state 22 children have died, I should take responsibility,” Subramanian told CNN-IBN.

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