Panic gripped a government middle school in Bihar’s Nalanda district on Tuesday after dozens of students fell ill and had to be rushed to hospital, allegedly after detergent powder was mixed into their mid-day meal in place of salt.
The incident took place at the Middle School in Parasi, within the Noorsarai police station area.
The meal served that day was soybean rice, supplied by an NGO as part of the government’s mid-day meal scheme.
Trouble began when some students, having already started eating, complained that the food tasted strange and seemed to be missing salt.
Locals in the area alleged that the school kitchen kept its salt and detergent powder containers stored close to each other, and that the cook, in the course of preparing the meal, mistakenly picked up the detergent instead of salt.
Word of the mix-up spread quickly once children began complaining of nausea, stomach pain and vomiting.
Accounts of how many students were affected differ across reports.
Some put the number at around two dozen, while several local news outlets have reported that close to 40 students, a majority of them girls, needed hospital treatment.
The affected children were taken to Biharsharif Sadar Hospital.
Civil Surgeon Dr Jay Prakash Singh visited the hospital to review their condition and later confirmed that all the students were out of danger.
School Principal Shailendra Kumar Singh said the matter would be investigated in detail to determine exactly how the error occurred during the preparation and distribution of the meal.
Incidents of this kind are not new to India’s mid-day meal programme. Schools across several states have previously reported cases involving contaminated food, foreign objects, and poor kitchen hygiene, prompting recurring questions about oversight and food safety standards at institutions running the scheme.
It remains to be seen whether any action will be taken against the cook or the NGO that supplied the meal in this case.
Bureau Report
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