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Nalanda mid-day meal case: headmaster suspended, cooks removed
Times of India··20 Aug
Bihar education minister Mithilesh Tiwari ordered an FIR after 34 children fell ill following a mid-day meal at Parasi Middle School in Nalanda. The district education officer suspended headmaster Shailendra Kumar and removed cooks Mantu Devi, Sharda Devi and Nipu Devi. The children were treated at Biharsharif Sadar Hospital. Officials said medical reports would still decide the cause.
Prism
What It Means For You
- If your child eats the mid-day meal at a Nalanda government school, 34 pupils from Parasi Middle School were hospitalised on 18 August and later described as stable.
- Anyone waiting on the detergent-versus-food-poisoning question can note the DEO has not accepted the salt-mix-up account pending hospital reports.
- If you supply or monitor school meals, the minister has put the NGO and the district programme officer on a 24-hour explanation clock.
What's Happening
- The incident was on Tuesday. Action against the headmaster and three cooks was taken on Wednesday after the minister's FIR direction.
- ETV Bharat said 17 boys and 17 girls fell ill. District officials told PTI the children were out of danger.
- Rural development minister Prem Kumar visited the hospital and asked for surprise inspections of mid-day meal kitchens in the district.
What The School Said Happened In The Kitchen
- The meal was rice with soybean-potato curry, served in more than one sitting, the headmaster told The Indian Express via later reports.
- He said the granddaughter of a cook asked for extra salt, detergent was picked up by mistake, and other children then received the same powder.
- Cook Sharda Devi said she did not know the container held detergent, and that some of her own children also fell ill, according to one report.
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