Bihar: 37 students hospitalised with food poisoning after having mid-day meal, teachers absconding

In Bihar, concerns regarding the mid-day meal, which is provided to students within the school, have now become common. There is often a fuss made over the quality of the meals served in government schools.

On Wednesday evening, at least 37 students and a cook were hospitalised after they fell ill hours after reportedly consuming a mid day meal at a government school in the Pakaridayal subdivision of Bihar's East Champaran district.

The children complained about the food quality to the teachers, after which the teachers closed the school and fled from there. On receiving the news of the deteriorating health of the children, the family members reached the school and all the sick children were rushed to the sub-divisional hospital. 

The incident was confirmed by Pakaridayal's sub divisional magistrate (SDM), Kumar Ravindra, on Thursday. He claimed that up to 37 children from Rajkiya Madhya Vidyalay in Sishani village on Wednesday complained of stomach aches and unease hours after eating their mid day meal in the village school.

"We immediately arranged to hospitalise them at subdivision hospital in Pakaridayal from their residences in the evening where they are having treatment," said sub divisional magistrate, adding that additional investigation is underway.

Anjani Kumar, the civil surgeon (CS) for East Champaran, said the students' condition is stable.

"At first glance, the illness seems to be the result of food poisoning." These kids have been under our active surveillance for 24 hours. However, the specific reason might well be determined when the food sample is examined," East Champaran civil surgeon said.

Meanwhile, officials assume that the edible oil used to prepare the meal was of poor quality.

Dinanath Singh, the chef who cooked the food, first ate it and forbade the children to eat food. Because of this, most of the children did not eat, but due to the pressure of the teachers, more than 2 dozen children had eaten, whose health deteriorated.