Patna: No arrests have been made in a Saran district of Bihar where 23 school children died due to contaminated mid day meal. There is a keen wait of forensic science laboratory’s report which is likely to come early on Saturday as it would reveal whether there was poison in the food.
The headmistress, who has been blamed for the tragedy by the Bihar government, is still absconding.
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Amarjeet Sinha, principal secretary, education, on Thursday, had said it was not a case of food poisoning but poison in food. He said preliminary findings pointed to insecticide poisoning of the oil and vegetables.
According to official, the forensic science experts had collected samples of the oil used to cook the meal late Tuesday night. Official said, “The oil samples had a bad odour.”
The postmortem of the children confirmed presence of a poisonous substance in the potato-soyabean curry without detailing the poison.
According to district officials, the meal consisted of rice, pulses and potato-soyabean curry.
A top government official suspected it could be organo-phosphorous poisoning caused due to traces of insecticides in vegetables. He added that doctors had told him that atropine had a positive effect on the affected children.
Parents of several children told officials that their children fell ill due to poisonous vegetable. “Some children, who consumed only rice and pulses, did not fall ill,” they said.
Chandrasekhar Singh, a doctor in a government hospital in Saran, said, “As many as 55 of 65 children fell ill after having the curry and some died.” He also said that 10 kids, who did not eat the curry, are safe.
Bureau Report
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