Bihar Pics: Absconding principal conspired to kill kids?

Chhapra, July 18: Massive protest has been carried out by different groups at Chhapra, a district in Bihar where 23 children died after having poisonous mid-day meal in a government school. The principal and other teachers were absconding, informed police on Thursday, July 18.

It was suspected that the principal along with opposition party leaders allegedly had hatched the conspiracy against the kids targeting the ruling state government. PK Shahi, the Education Minister in Bihar, informed that all grocery items used in mid-day meals were brought from a shop which is owned by Arjun Rai, husband of the school principal.

Questioning Rai's alleged role in the "conspiracy", the minister also claimed that Rai belongs to an opposition party. Shahi also said that autopsies of the children revealed that organo-Phosphorous had been injected into the meal.

Raising serious questions regarding the alleged conspiracy, the minister asserted, "All the food items used to be brought from his grocery shop. It is a matter of an inquiry how poison was used."

A massive hunt has been launched to nab the absconding principal and other teachers. The mid-day meal scheme in Bihar always remains in controversial news. Dead lizards, frogs, insects and even a rat have been found in food cooked for the mid-day meal in schools in the state.

Meanwhile, The Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government has released an advertisement in newspapers that reportedly directs the schools' principals and cooks to first eat the food themselves before it is served to students.

The advertisement says, "Even when an Education department supervisor visits the school during surprise checks, he/she should taste the midday meals."

The ad also instructs schools not to store insecticides alongside food ingredients and cattle feed to prevent contamination of the food given to school children.

Mid-day Meal Tragedy: Family members mourn for victims

Family members of mid-day meal victims mourn deaths of their siblings in Chhapra.

Mid-Day Meal Tragedy: Man with his ill child

A man hold his ill child after being rushed to a hospital as they complained about sickness following the mid-day meal at a village in Chhapra district of Bihar.

Mid-day Meal Tragedy: Police lathicharge a protester

Policemen lathi charge angry people during a protest in Chhapra, Bihar.

Man mourns for his dead daughter

A man mourns as he holds his dead daughter in Patna Medical College & Hospital after at least 23 children died and many more were sick after eating lunch at a primary school in Chhapra, in Patna.

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