In a shocking case of negligence, over 100 students of a Government middle school in laxminagar fell ill on Tuesday immediately after consuming midday meal. Panic struck the students after they discovered a lizard in their meal.
Students of the Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya, aged between six to 14 years, were rushed to the MGM Medical College and Hospital after complaints of abdominal pain and vomiting and about 25 students out of 100 were put on drips.
On Tuesday, the students had gathered for ‘khichdi’ in the afternoon which is being operated by the Iskcon’s Food Relief Foundation at the Ramdas Bhatta near Bistupur.
While the students were having lunch, a student Payal Kumari discovered a lizard on her plate. As the teachers came to know about it, they stopped serving food. By then many students had started complaining stomachache and started vomiting. As the news spread, there was chaos on the campus.
The teachers and head mistress Kamala Kumari rushed the students to the MGM hospital. According to Kamala Kumari, the incident triggered panic among students and teachers. Indra Bhushan Singh, district superintendent of education (DSE), East Singhbhum also reached the hospital.
“We are all in state of shock and are surprised over the reaction after consuming the food. We were having khichdi when my friend sitting beside me found a lizard on her plate and threw up. There were many who had already finished. There was immense pain in my stomach,” said a student.
School official said: “For several years mid-day meal is being served to the children but, for the first time we have experienced such a problem.”
The doctors attending the children at the MGM hospital said that students out of danger after the treatment and that there was nothing to worry.
Indra Bhushan Singh said that it had nothing to do with the quality of food and it was somebody’s mischief. He suspected internal politics of the self-help group involved in serving the mid-day meal as the cause behind the incident.
An official of the centralised kitchen of Iskcon Food Relief Foundation at Ramdas Bhatta said that he was sure that the incident has happened due to unmanned food.
The Iskcon Food Relief Foundation started its pilot project in the city in April 2012 though the foundation stone was laid by Chief Minister Arjun Munda in July 2011. The Rs 4.28-crore kitchen is being run in collaboration with Tata Steel.
Tata Steel provides the infrastructure that would be required for successful rollout of the Mid-Day Meal Programme while ISKCON Food Relief Foundation, an NGO that provides top-class Mid-Day Meal Services in various towns and cities across the country, takes charge of the day-to-day management of the programme.