The principal of the government school in Chapra whose 23 children died in the midday meal tragedy suspected to have been caused by poisoned food was absconding, as it emerged that the free food served did not undergo any quality checks. The toll rose to 23 after it came to the knowledge of the district administration today that one child was buried by family members without keeping the authorities informed,
Saran district magistrate Abhijit Sinha said. 24 children and a woman cook Manju Devi are under treatment at the Patna Medical College and Hospital. 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 grand-daughter 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 told PTI 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 an FIR has been lodged, has already been suspended by the state administration.
Amardeep Sinha, Principal Secretary, Bihar said the case seemed to be one of "poisoning of food" and not "food poisoning." He said the State Forensic Science Laborotary (SLFL) was conducting investigations and their report would be out tomorrow. Meanwhile, a blamegame has started over the midday meal row with the Centre stating that it had alerted 12 Bihar districts over shortcomings in the implementation of the scheme, a charge refuted by the Nitish Kumar government.The HRD ministry, which pilots the programme, claimed that it had alerted 12 Bihar districts after shortcomings were found in executing the scheme."What has happened is an unfortunate incident. We are pained by the death of young children and 23 of them. The focus should be to see it does not recur", HRD minister M M
Pallam Raju told reporters as he announced the decision to set up a separate committee to review the implementation of the flagship scheme. The committee is expected to supplement the efforts of the existing mid-day meal monitoring committee which meets twice a year and warns the states if there are any shortcomings.
In Patna, the state government, facing widespread criticism over the deaths, denied receiving any alert from the Centre over shortcomings in its implementation and insisted that the food was 'poisonous'. "No such alert was issued to us. In the meeting of project approval board, a study by A N Sinha Institute of Social Science and Jamia Milia University had pointed out that in many places standard of hygiene was not maintained on which the government acted promptly," Principal Secretary Education Amarjeet Sinha told reporters.
Accompanied by Director, Midday meal programme, R Lakshamanan, Sinha said based on the studies, the state government in April held a training for principals and cooks to the maintain standard of cleanness in food for the scheme. State education minister P K Sahi said yesterday a preliminary investigation suggested that the food served to the children contained an organophosphate used as an insecticide on rice and wheat crops. He also al leged there was a political conspiracy to destabilise the Nitish Kuamr government.
Bihar director for midday meal programme R Lakshamanan said inquiries into the Saran tragedy showed that standing orders like quality check of food and its maintenance by teachers and cooks were not observed at the school. As the tragedy created a scare, he admitted that in many schools children are refusing to take food packets provided to them under the programme. The midday meal scheme, a flagship programme of the central government, covers 70,000 schools of Bihar providing food to 1.25 crore children.
