At least 68 students, majority of them girls, fell sick after drinking water from a hand pump installed inside their school campus under Runni Saidpur block area in Sitamarhi district on Friday.
The hand pump was installed inside the common campus of Kasturba Gandhi Girls Residential School and a Government middle school at Dhahar village in Sitamarhi district. The children made complaints of acute pains in their stomach and also started vomiting after drinking hand pump water. According to villagers, a person was loitering around the campus with a glass and it is suspected that he might have dropped some poison into the hand pump. The warden of the Kasturba Gandhi Residential School, Vandana Kumari remained unconscious for several hours after drinking water from the hand pump.
After regaining her consciousness, she said that she had seen a person carrying some material in a glass and also dropping it in the hand pump. District Magistrate of Muzaffarpur Pratima S Verma said that out of total 68 sick students, 43 were referred to Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur for better treatment. Other students were treated at Primary Health Centre in Runnisaidpur. Superintendent of SKMCH, GK Thakur, however, said that no trace of any poisonous substance was found during medical examination of the children. He said that all children are stable and out of danger. Superintendent of Police PK Sinha said that an FIR would be registered in this connection and laboratory tests would be conducted to know whether the hand pump water contained some foreign substance.
Taking exception to growing incidents of children fallen sick after drinking water from hand pumps, State Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told newspersons that the Government is taking all such incidents with all the seriousness and prompt action is taken for providing medical help to the ailing children. He also appealed to the common people to maintain a close vigil around schools so that the guilty people could be identified. The Chief Minister directed State Director General of Police Abhayanand to seal such hand pumps from which students and others drank water and subsequently fell sick. Water samples are also being sent to Forensic Science in Patna for further tests.
At least 11 students of a Government school had fallen sick after drinking contaminated water during their midday meal in Bihar’s Saran district on Thursday. Similarly, nearly 80 students fell sick after consuming their mid-day meals in Jamui and Arwal districts on Wednesday. Bihar has reported at least six different cases of children falling sick after drinking water at their schools during the last few days. Principal Secretary (Education Department) Amarjeet Sinha said that orders have been issued to all school authorities to conduct safety tests on water.