New Delhi:
A nine-year-old girl student in Yogi Adityanath-ruled Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district died allegedly after consuming mid-day meal in her state-run school. According to officials, Roshni, a class 5th student was taken ill after having mid-day meal at the primary school of Syorha village in Banda district.
“Roshni was admitted to the hospital after she complained of vomiting. She was admitted to the hospital in the afternoon but died in the evening during treatment,” news agency PTI quoted district’s hospital medical officer Vineet Sachan as saying.
The girl’s mother alleged that her little daughter died after consuming the mid-day meal served at the school. However, school principal Lala Bhaiya denied the charges and said that the same food was given to other children as well as school staff, but no one fell ill.
The body of the girl has been handed over to the police for post-mortem and the exact cause of death will be ascertained only after the autopsy report.
India’s ‘poisonous’ mid-day meal
According to HRD Ministry officials, more than 900 children were reported ill after consuming mid-day meals across the country in last three years. The ministry said that the responsibility for providing cooked and nutritious mid-day meal to eligible children lies with state governments.
Recently, in a shocking incident, a snake was found in mid-day meal at a Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Faridabad. In UP Mathura, two students died after consuming milk served as part of mid-day meal. In Himachal Pradesh, about 80 students were taken ill after consuming the mid-day meal served to them.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has also issued guidelines on quality, safety and hygiene in school-level kitchens to all the states and the UTs. However, the quality of food has always remained questionable with multiple incidents of students falling ill after consuming the food being reported across the country.
