Thursday, Jul 18, 2013

Patna: The state government in Bihar, headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar, has put up advertisements in local dailies asking school principals to taste food first and monitor its quality amid reports that panicking children have stopped taking midday meals in hundreds of schools across the state, in view of Tuesday’s tragedy.

Most children stopped eating the meals after 25 learners died from eating a “contaminated” midday meal at a school in northern Bihar’s Saran district.

“All the school principals as well as the cooks in the primary schools are directed to taste the cooked meal first being served in children’s plates, failure to implement which will draw stern administrative action,” read a public notice issued by the Education Department through newspapers.

School inspectors visiting in the course of their work have also been asked to taste midday meals and mention this in their reports to the department.

Apart from this, the education department has instructed school principals not to store food items alongside insecticides or fertilizers and also directed them to use only quality food ingredients.

“In the past as well such instructions had been issued to the school authorities and we are again reminding them to strictly follow the order,” education department principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha said on Thursday, while announcing to initiate stern action against the culprits.

The principal of the government school is absconding.

No arrests have been made, two days after the incident, as a mass grave outside the primary school at Dharmasati Gandavan village where the dead were buried bore mute testimony to the tragedy.

“This school will not run. We will not allow it,” said Rakeshwar Mahato who lost his granddaughter in the tragedy. “This is where our children were murdered,” he said, defending the decision to bury the children just outside the school premises as a mark of protest by the families.

Sinha said that Meena Devi, the principal of the school, is absconding along with her husband and the police was conducting raids at their possible hideouts. The grocery from where the items for the midday meal were brought belonged to Meena’s husband, it was stated.

The principal, against whom a First Information Report has been lodged, has already been suspended by the state administration.

Amardeep Sinha, principal secretary of the state, said the case seemed to be one of “poisoning of food” and not “food poisoning.”

He said the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SLFL) was conducting investigations and their report would be out Friday.

State education minister P K Sahi said Wednesday a preliminary investigation suggested that the food served to the children contained an organophosphate used as an insecticide on rice and wheat crops.

Parents said they were shocked by the manner the state administration has handled the entire situation and tried to give it a conspiracy angle, instead of admitting faults.

The ruling regime has been constantly pointing accusing fingers towards the opposition parties and accused them of being involved in a conspiracy to “destabilise” the government.

“They are doing politics even at this time...We are shocked,” said a grieving family.

Children boycotted midday meals in hundreds of schools, citing Tuesday’s tragedy. On Thursday, hundreds of children in several districts again refused to eat, saying they have been asked by their parents not to touch them.

At a primary school in Central Bihar’s Arwal district, hundreds of little children threw away plates and refused to eat despite repeated appeals by the school principals.

There were similar incidents in Saharsa, Katihar, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Gaya districts. Such was the panic that worried parents gave home-cooked lunches to their wards while warning them against eating the midday meals.

“Mummy has asked me not to eat midday meal in school...I already have brought lunch box with me,” six-year-old Suhana told her school principal at the local primary school, Shivpuri, Patna, leaving the authorities stunned.

As the boycott of meal continues, Ekta Shakti Foundation, an NGO supplying foods to over 2,000 schools in Bihar have also stopped supplying cooked meals to the children, for fear of being attacked. In the past two days since the tragedy struck, dozens of NGO workers have been assaulted by angry parents and students for allegedly supplying substandard food. The NGO supplies food in five districts of Bihar, including Patna.

By Lata Rani Correspondent

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