27 children fall ill after consuming mid-day meal
By IANSTuesday, June 29, 2010
PATNA - At least 27 students of a school at Tajpur in Samastipur district of Bihar fell ill after consuming a mid-day meal in which a lizard was later found, officials said Tuesday.
“They are suffering from food poisoning. But after initial treatment, they are now out of danger,” said a doctor at a hospital.
According to police officials, at least 27 students fell ill after consuming the meal served at a government school. The district administration has ordered a probe into the incident.
Angry parents blocked the National Highway No.28 to protest against the incident.
Various such cases have been reported in Bihar in the last one year.
A few months back, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar admitted that there were shortcomings in the implementation of the mid-day meal scheme, under which students in government-run schools are served free lunch.
The scheme covers more than 80,000 schools across the state.
The mid-day meal scheme is the world’s largest nutrition-supplement programme, covering more than a million schools across India. It was launched in 1995 to tackle the twin problems of dropouts in primary schools and malnutrition among children.
