Bihar mid-day meal disaster: 22 children dead, Nitish Kumar’s party alleges conspiracy

Mangalore Today News Network

Chapra/Patna, Jul 17, 2013: The village of Masrakh, 60 kms from Patna, buried some of its youngest children today near the school where 24 hours ago, a free mid-day meal was served to them allegedly contaminated with pesticides.

22 children have been killed.  The state government alleges a conspiracy.  

Tuesday’s lunch was laced with organic phosphorous, according to  PK Shahi, the state’s Education Minister.

 

 

He also said that groceries for the school were bought from a store owned by the husband of the headmistress, who is missing. This man, he alleged, has political affiliations.

Though the minister did not name a party, sources say the allusion is to the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD whose chief Lalu Yadav represents this constituency in Parliament.  "An inquiry will determine if the poisoning was inadvertent or deliberate," the minister said, alleging a conspiracy to undermine the ruling Janata Dal United.

The relentless politicisation of the tragedy surged as parents fought to contain their anger.  Armed with sticks, a mob in Chhapra smashed windows of police buses and other vehicles and turned over a police booth.

"My children had gone to school to study. They came back home crying, and said it hurts," one distraught father told NDTV. "I took them into my arms, but they kept crying, saying their stomach hurt very badly."

The BJP, which was booted out last month from a 17-year partnership with the Janata Dal United, backed some locals who said that officials took too long to organise ambulances for children after they fell violently ill at school.

In Madhubani today, 50 children complained of nausea after their free lunch and were taken to hospital before being discharged.