Lizard found in mid-day meal in Madhubani district

Patnai: In a separate incident, 50 students fainted after eating mid-day meals at a school in Madhubani district. According to the reports, a lizard was found in the food.
The food was served to students of Navtolia Middle School, Bisfi. They were then rushed to Bisfi health centre. “All the students are out of danger,” medical officer in-charge AK Prabhat said.
The students were served rice, dal and vegetables. Soon after consuming the meals, some of them complained of stomach pain and fell ill.
Except seven children, the rest have been discharged from the health centre, he said adding seven students, five of them girls, are being administered saline water.
With the death of two more children, the toll due to consumption of spurious mid-day meal at a government primary school in Bihar’s Saran district rose to 22 on Wednesday. Principal Secretary of state Education Department, Amarjeet Sinha, said that he suspected the deaths occurred by organo phosphorous poisoning caused due to traces of insecticides.
While 16 children, aged below 10 years studying in Class I to V, had died in Chhapra itself, four others were declared dead on arrival at Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) late on Tuesday night. Two died at the hospital this morning, sources said.
Among the dead were two children of a woman cook of the midday meal project Panno Devi. Three children of another woman cook Manju Devi are under treatment at PMCH along with her.
Twenty five others are under medical supervision in PMCH, Superintendent of PMCH Amarkant Jha Azad said. The Superintendent said the ailing children were admitted to ICU of paediatric department and senior doctors were attending to them round-the-clock.
The tragedy took place at the government primary school in Dahrmasati Gandawan village at Mashrakh block, about 25 km from Chhapra and 60 km from state capital on Tuesday.
BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday demanded a judicial probe into the tragedy and stern action against district officials. “What was the (Saran) district administration doing? Why was the quality of the food served under mid-day meal scheme not checked before being given to children?” Sinha, who is BJP MP from Patna Saheb, said.
“My heart reaches out to families of innocent children who lost their lives after eating mid-day meal at the school,” the actor-turned politician said.