About 135 children fell sick after consuming contaminated mid-day meals in two separate incidents in Bihar and West Bengal.
On Friday, as many as 35 children fell ill after eating a mid-day meal in which a lizard was found in the Bankura district of West Bengal. The mid-day meal was served at the Hatgram Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centre in the Indpur block of Bankura district.
According to the India Today report, around 30 to 35 children complained of vomiting and severe stomach ache after consuming food at the Hatgram ICDS centre. The children were admitted to a local government hospital and later were moved to Bankura Sammilani Medical College Hospital for treatment.
In a similar turn of events, about 100 schoolchildren in Bihar’s Araria district were hospitalised after consuming a mid-day meal in which a dead snake was allegedly found, said officials. They further added that the children are undergoing treatment and are “out of danger”.
This incident occurred at Amouna middle school, Ward No. 21, under Jogbani Nagar Parishad on Saturday.
“All the schoolchildren who consumed mid-day meal have been admitted at Forbesganj sub-divisional hospital, and fortunately, all are safe,” said Araria district education officer (DEO) Rajkumar.
“A probe has been ordered, and those found guilty would not be spared,” he added.
DEO said an NGO was assigned with the task of supplying mid-day meals in the school, and “We are seriously looking into the matter, and the license of the NGO will be cancelled if their involvement is surfaced.”
“A student saw the dead snake while mid-day meal was served, and he raised an alarm; however, till then, about 100 children had consumed the meal,” said officials.
“The children are safe, and they will be discharged by the evening,” said the doctors at Forbesganj sub-divisional hospital under whose observation the children are undergoing treatment.
Meanwhile, officials from the education department and the DEO reached the hospital to meet with the children. The officials also visited the school and spoke with teachers and staff.
“We have complained several times to the NGO about the quality of mid-day meals, but they don’t listen,” alleged school teachers.
“We don’t know how the dead snake was found in the mid-day meal,” said an official from the NGO without disclosing his identity.
Meanwhile, in the West Bengal case, villagers enquired and inspected the food vessels in the ICDS centre and found that the meal served to the kids had a dead lizard floating in one of the drums, leading to intense throwing up among the children who consumed the infected food.
“My brother’s son took his usual lunch from Hatgram ICDS, but shortly after, he felt sick. We panicked when he started vomiting. Following this, we went and looked at the food that was served to the kids, and it had a dead lizard, which was possibly cooked while the meal was being prepared,” said Bapi Pramanik, a resident of Hatgram.
ICDS workers at the centre, however, denied responsibility, saying that they were “unaware of the condition of the food served,” a local of the village said. The distribution of the midday meals was discontinued shortly after.
Additional District Magistrate Arindam Biswas said on Saturday, “As many as 30 children were admitted to the district hospital after consuming infected food. It was an unfortunate incident. Initially, we heard that a 3-year-old kid who had food from the Hatgram ICDS centre had fallen sick. The CDPO was informed about the dead lizard in the daal that was served to them.”
He added that the responsible person at the ICDS centre was sent a show-cause notice.
“All necessary administrative steps will be taken against those responsible,” Biswas assured.
As of now, the children have been discharged from the Bankura District Hospital.
“They showed no sign of deterioration after admission and were discharged following hours of observation,” said Dr Saptarshi Chatterjee, Super, Bankura Sammilani Hospital.
