Students gripped by fear over midday meal

As many as 70 students of  Government Higher Primary School of Doddahasal village took ill on Tuesday afternoon after they consumed the midday meal.

On Wednesday, President of School Development Monitoring Committee (SDMC) Venkataramappa and SDMC president K Rajagopal regretted the incident and said that such a thing had never occurred in the past and promised to ensure that this will never happen again.

Since many years this school has been a model school for the surrounding villages. “We have maintained cleanliness and the quality of midday meals.

However, Tuesday’s incident has made us sad. Except for two girls, nothing happened to the others”, said K Varalakshmi and K Manjula, the teachers of the school.

Junior health assistant A V Gowramma, who has been camping since Tuesday night at the school said that all the children are doing well.

On Wednesday, the midday meal was prepared as usual. During meal time some students stood in a queue with their plates for the meal. 

However, others who had brought their meal in boxes from home, remained in the classroom.

These children normally had meals with the other children. But following the incident on Tuesday, their parents had packed their meals from home.

Back to box

But they refused to admit that they would not eat midday meals. When the teachers asked them why they had brought packed food from home, they did not reply.

Some of the students who lived close to the school went home and had their lunch.

Most of the students who came to the classes on Wednesday looked no only healthy, but were also smiling.

But when they were called for their midday meals, many hesitated. But the teachers did not force them. They themselves had their meals along with the other students.

The junior health assistant also joined them in their meal.

The school has 77 students from Doddahasal, Chikkahasal and Ekambali villages. One of the students, Damini, was suffering from fever for the past few days.

She vomitted first. After observing her, a few other students vomited. Damini and Shweta, two of the students were admitted to R L Jalappa Hospital.

Several top officials of the district visited the school.