11 students fall ill after drinking water during mid-day meal in Bihar; Principal undergoes polygraph test
Chhapra: Eleven students of a government school fell ill after drinking contaminated water during their mid-day meal in Bihar's Saran district today, just a day after 150 others reported sick after eating at school.
Official sources said two girl students of the middle school at Molnapur in Saran district fell unconscious on drinking water from a hand pump installed by the government after the mid-day meal. Soon nine more students complained of uneasiness and all of them were taken to Gharkha health centre, the sources said.
District Magistrate Abhijeet Sinha and Superintendent of Police Sujeet Kumar visited the hospital and the children were shifted to Patna Medical College and Hospital. Sinha later said all the 11 children were stable at the hospital.
Twenty three students of Dharmasati Gandaman primary school in Saran district had died after eating poisonous midday meal on July 16. Another four students fell ill after drinking contaminated water from a tube well in a government school under Kauchaikot block in neighbouring Gopalganj district during the day.
Two other persons who drank from the well to fell ill, official sources said. Altogether 150 students fell ill yesterday after eating midday meals at two schools in Jamui and Arwal districts of Bihar yesterday. While 55 students of a government middle school fell ill after eating midday meal provided by an NGO at Kalyuga village in Jamui district, 95 others of Chamandi primary school in Arwal fell ill after the meal.
Next: Principal undergoes polygraph test in mid-day meal tragedy
Principal undergoes polygraph test in mid-day meal tragedy
Chhapra: The principal of the Chhapra school, where 23 children died after eating poisonous midday meal a fortnight ago, was today subjected to polygraph test to cross-check the statements made by her after arrest.
Two officials from CFSL (Centre for Forensic Science Laboratory) Delhi conducted polygraph test of the principal Meena Devi, Inspector Generak of Police (CID) Vinay Kumar told PTI. The test was conducted at town police station here where the principal was brought from the Chhapra jail in tight police security, he said.
The test is aimed at cross-checking the statements made by the principal of the primary school located at Dharmasati Gandaman village in Saran district on the July-16 incident, he said.
After absconding for more than a week, the principal against whom an FIR has been lodged with Mashrakh police station under section 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy), was arrested and a district court sent her to judicial custody till August 5.
Her husband, facing allegation by the state Education Minister P K Shahi that he had purchased poisonous monocroton pesticide which after getting mixed in the midday meal proved fatal, is still hiding.
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