Over 40 school kids fall sick after mid-day meal in AP, Telangana

Mangalore Today News Network

Anantapur, Nov 06, 2021: As many as 32 students fell ill after having the mid-day meal in a school run by the Telangana government in Nirmal district. A total of 114 students of the Mandal Parishad Upper Primary School in Dimmadurthi village of Mamda mandal took the meals on Friday, November 5, and 32 of them fell sick, the district educational officer (DEO) A Ravinder Reddy told PTI. The 32 children  were immediately given treatment at a primary health centre. Out of the 32 children, 12 students were under observation and out of danger, the DEO said.

 

Responding to the report of the DEO, District Collector Musharraf Farooqui suspended the school headmaster. The contract given to the agency that supplied the meals has been cancelled, the DEO added. According to The New Indian Express, the students are believed to have been served rotten eggs which made them sick.

In a similar incident in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, around 15 students of a government primary school in Thippareddipalli village in Yadiki mandal fell sick after having the mid-day meal. According to Eenadu, the students fell ill after returning home from school on Friday evening. They were first shifted to a hospital in Tadipatri, and later moved to the Government General Hospital in Anantapur for better treatment. GGH Anantapur Superintendent A Jagannath told The Hindu that all the students were out of danger.

Similar incidents have occurred multiple times in the past in both Telugu states. In February 2017, around 26 students were hospitalised after eating a mid-day meal at a school in Nagula Malyala village in Karimnagar district of Telangana. The students suffered food poisoning symptoms like stomach ache and vomiting and were rushed to a hospital. The same year, in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district, around 72 students from a BC Welfare Girls’ Hostel in Jaggampeta suffered dehydration, diarrhoea and vomiting after eating khichdi and eggs provided as mid-day meals, and were hospitalised.

Courtesy: The News Minute