Jharkhand: 106 girl students fall ill after eating dinner; students allege they were served stale foodIn

Chaibasa: There seems to be no end to official negligence when it comes to serving meals to students. Many incidents of food poisoning and poor quality mid-day meal have been reported from across the country.

The fresh incident has been reported from Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district where over 100 girl students fell ill after eating dinner at a government-run residential school.

Food poisoning suspected

According to a report in Hindustan Times, the students fell ill after alleged food poisoning. Of the 106, 19 students were writing their class 10 and 12 board examinations. The incident took place on Thursday night at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) at Chaibasa.

The girls complained of vomiting, nausea, stomach after eating dinner at their residential school. According to students, the food served to them was prepared in the afternoon.  Initially, 15 students were admitted to Chaibasa Sadar hospital. Later, the number rose to 106. The school authorities, however, claimed that all the students were in a stable condition.

“At least 62 girl students were administered saline and antibiotics. Some of the students who were taking exams, were brought for treatment and are fine,” said Dr Manju Dubey, Civil surgeon, West Singhbhum.

Of the 106 students admitted t the hospital, 19 students were writing their class 10 and 12 board examinations.

Serving ‘stale’ food

Later, a team was sent to the school-cum hostel to collect food samples. The district administration has also formed a 3-member team to probe the incident. The team was ordered to submit the probe report within 48-hour.

“All students are doing fine now. They fell ill due to food poisoning. Thankfully, there was no casualty,” said Arava Rajkamal, West Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner.  414 students are enrolled at the school and they are served food in batches. The DC also said that he is probing the allegations of the students that the food served to them was not fresh and was made in the afternoon.

Rajkamal also said that they have given the students a choice to appear in the exams if they feel well or they would be given certificates that they are not well to write exams.