16 children fall ill after consuming midday meal in Uttar Pradesh

Jalaun (UP), Sept 10: At least 16 children fell ill on Tuesday after consuming midday meal at a school in Nasihpur village of a district in Uttar Pradesh, this afternoon.

The children at Lal Bahadur Shastri higher secondary school complained of vomiting and stomach ache after eating 'tehri'(a dish comprising rice and potato).

According to the principal of the school, Mahendra Singh, a team of doctors was rushed to the village to attend to the children.

District Magistrate Ram Ganesh said that samples of the food served to children has been sent for testing and action will be taken against those responsible once the report is received.

A team of doctors was rushed to the village to attend to the children.

This is not the first time when children have fallen sick after consuming mid day meal in Uttar Pradesh.

On September 4, at least 125 students of two government schools were taken ill after eating kheer (a sweet dish) served to them in the midday meal in Badaun district.

In another similar incident, 25 children of a government school were taken ill after eating midday meal in Baghaula area of the district.

On July 25, a tadpole was found in the mid-day meal served to students at Tikhunti primary school in Dilari area of Moradabad.

Unfortunately, these incidents are still happening even when the Uttar Pradesh government decided to scrutinise food being served to students in schools.

Following the Bihar midday meal tragedy that killed 22 students, the UP government decided that mid day meal coordinators will visit schools in all six districts of Lucknow on a monthly basis.

In July, students of a primary school in Barauli village, under Chargawan block protested against the poor and sub-standard quality of food.

In UP, a Mid Day Meal Authority was formed in 2006. Under the scheme, rice products are served four days a week and wheat items given on the remaining two days to the children.

Under the scheme, 116,107 primary schools with 14,255,482 students and 53,499 higher primary schools having 6,087,620 children in the state are enrolled and served the mid day meal.

Recently, many cases of irregularities in mid-day meals have been reported. There have been numerous incidents when frogs, lizards, tadpoles and even snakes have been found in meals meant to serve children.

OneIndia News

(With Agency inputs)