22 kids take ill after mid-day meals in Mangalore
‘No education department official visited the spot’
Panic prevailed when as many as 22 students from St Joseph School, at Kankanady fell sick after consuming spoilt food, on Thursday afternoon.
The condition of four students was worse while the rest were said to be recuperating at the hospital. What added to the commotion was the silence of the school management and the issue that Fr Mullers’ Hospital authorities, reportedly refused to admit the children to the hospital initially.
The incident took place at about 1.25 pm, immediately after the kids had eaten the food served under mid-day meal programme. The aided school had outsourced the catering duty to Vithali Bai from Jeppu, reportedly, who has been sending the food to the school since several years now. The witnesses to the incident, the flower vendor, who run business next to the school, told Deccan Herald that by 1.25 pm, they saw the teachers from the school smugly take three kids in an autorikshaw.
“Since the condition of the kids was quite awful, we approached the teachers and asked them what the problem was. They snapped at us,” said a flower vendor adding that raged by the attitude of the teachers, a group of flower vendors walked into the school and found that several kids were in a classroom crying and the teachers were attending them by giving water. The flower vendors took several kids to the hospital despite opposition from teachers.
They said that though they had tried contacting the BEO, his mobile was switched off. None of the politicians responded to the situation and none of the education department officials came to the spot. The teachers too were acting indifferently, trying to save their own skin.
By this time, a huge angry mob had assembled outside the school and had started lashing out at the inefficiency of the school administration to provide medical aid to the children. They said that the teachers acted very rudely in the beginning by not giving out information and they even tried to hush up the matter.
Raghavendra, a flower vendor who rushed to the school first along with his companions said that the rice had turned sticky and there were soggy paper in the food. However, Sr Lilies, Vice-President of Bethany Education Foundation, said that though Akshara Dasoha scheme is there in the school, the preparation of food was outsourced to a caterer on special consideration because there is lack of space to prepare food in the premises.
“The caterer has been supplying food over last several years and there has been no complaint. This is the first time that such an incident has happened. The children are recuperating and there is no matter of worry,” she said.Students Islamic Organisation of India members who had been in the spot have condemned the incident and have demanded action against the guilty.
Inquiry soonZilla Panchayat CEO Dr K N Vijayprakash said that there are 348 schools in the district under bisi uta scheme, of which 143 are being fed by ISKCON while 27 schools are being provided food by ‘Seva Meals’.
This school gets food under ‘Seva meal’.Akshara Dasoha officials have been asked to conduct an inquiry and submit a report. Meanwhile, the 27 schools where Seva meals supply food will be monitored for a week. Any repetition of such incident may cost dear to Seva meals, said the CEO. He confirmed that all the children have been discharged while 10 have been retained in Out Patient Ward for observation.
