Chhapra/Patna: One more child has died in the mid-day meal tragedy in Chhapra taking the toll to 23, while 25 others, including 24 children and a cook, were under treatment in the Patna Medical College and Hospital.
The district administration has come to know about the death of a child, who was buried by family-members without informing the authorities, Saran District Magistrate Abhijit Sinha told PTI.
Seventeen school children died in the Sadar Hospital in Chhapra, four were declared brought dead on arrival to PMCH on late Tuesday night and two lost their lives during treatment at PMCH on Wednesday.
PMCH Superintendent Amarkant Jha Azad contradicted media reports about some fresh deaths including that of the cook Manju Devi.
"The condition of all 25, including 24 children and woman cook Manju Devi, is improving," Azad told PTI.
Saran DM said that the officials had checked by visiting every house in the vicinity of Dharmasati Gandavan village to know about any death about which the authority has no knowledge.
He said that the head mistress of the school, Meena Devi, is absconding with her husband and the police was conducting raids against them. The head mistress, against whom an FIR has been lodged, has already been suspended by the administration.
The DM said that the government primary school, where the tragedy took place, had been closed till further order.
Bihar minister attacked by mob over meal tragedy
Hajipur (Bihar): Bihar minister Parween Amanullah was on Thursday attacked and held up for some time by a mob in Vaishali district, which was agitating over the mid-day meal tragedy in the state.
Amanullah, who is the Minister for Social Welfare, was on her way to Muzaffarpur from Patna when the protesters, who had blockaded National Highway 77 near Rai Birendra College, about 5km from Hajipur town, pelted her car with stones, forcing it to halt.
"I was stopped by the mob for nearly 15 minutes before police came and escorted my car to safety... Stones hit my car while I was sitting inside," Amanullah told PTI.
The minister said she cancelled her programme and returned to Patna after the incident. Vaishali SP Suresh Chaudhary confirmed the incident. The Bihar government has been under attack by opposition parties over the midday meal tragedy in Saran district which has claimed the lives of 23 children.
RJD, BJP and CPI had separately observed bandh in Saran on Wednesday. Opposition parties have blamed the state government for the delay in rushing the victims to hospital after they were taken ill upon eating the meal.
Next: Mid-day meal:Monitoring committee to look into quality of food
 

Mid-day meal:Monitoring committee to look into quality of food
New Delhi: In the wake of the mid-day meal tragedy in Bihar, the Centre on Thursday decided to constitute a monitoring committee to look into the quality of food supplied even as it said that it had issued alerts to 12 Bihar districts after shortcomings were found in implementation of the scheme.
The committee is expected to supplement the efforts of the existing mid-day meal monitoring committee which meets twice a year and warns the states if there are any shortcomings.
Asked if any warnings were issued to Bihar by the committee earlier this year after some shortcomings in the implementation of the programme were identified, HRD Minister M.M. Pallam Raju replied in the affirmative.
"Yes, apparently there has been. There were 12 districts that were identified and alerts were sent and Saran (hit by the incident) was among them," he told reporters here on Thursday on the sidelines of a function. He, however, said they do not wish to highlight the issue right now and play a blame game over it as the death of the children have shocked all.
The focus would now be on strengthening the programme and to ensure such incidents does not 'recur again', he said. He said in the wake of the tragedy, the Centre has decided to constitute a quality monitoring committee to look into the quality of food supplied and ensure effectiveness of the supply chain and proper hygiene.
The committee is expected to supplement the efforts of the existing midday meal monitoring committee which meets twice a year and warns the states if there are any shortcomings. "We have decided to form a committee which will look into the qualitative aspect of implementation of the programme, the quality of the food that is supplied, the effectiveness of the supply chain and the hygiene of the place where it is cooked," he said.
Officials said the composition of the committee is being worked out. The vigilance and monitoring committees constituted in every districts with MPs as members should also ensure that the quality aspect is looked into, he added.
Raju, who on Wednesday feared that contamination of food could be one of the reasons for the death, said they are awaiting the forensic report and responsibility will be fixed. 
Next: Mid-day meal tragedy jolts Bihar

Mid-day meal tragedy jolts Bihar
Patna: Jolted by the mid-day meal tragedy in Saran which claimed the lives of 23 children, Bihar government is set to issue stringent instructions for quality check and improving infrastructural facilities.
"The notice for strict quality check of food served under midday meal scheme in schools across Bihar will be issued either today or tomorrow," director, midday meal programme, R. Lakshamanan told PTI. He said inquiries into the Saran tragedy has revealed that standing orders like quality check of food and its maintenance by teachers and cooks were not observed in the Dharmasati Gandavan primary school.
Lakshamanan said notwithstanding the 'mishap' at Chhapra and another at Madhubani yesterday in which 50 children fell ill, the midday meal scheme is continuing in other schools but with extra precaution. He, however, admitted that in many schools children are refusing to take food packets provided to them under the programme.
The mid-day meal scheme, a flagship programme of the central government, covers 70,000 schools of the state providing food to 1.25 crore children. Lakshamanan, who visited the primary school at Dharmasati Gandavan village in Mashrakh block where the mid-day meal tragedy struck on Tuesday, said some additional measures would be adopted in the wake of the unpleasant incident and the existing ones would be strictly observed. 
Lakshmaman said in addition to the present provision of quality check of food under midday meal scheme by the cook and a school teacher, the government was planning to include one parent on rotational basis to ensure hygiene of the food. Besides, a register would be maintained by all schools and comments would have to be entered in it every day about quality of food under the programme, he said.
The Bihar mid-day meal director said the state government would also look into improving infrastructural facilities for better implementation of the programme.
Roofs would be constructed in schools where food is cooked in roofless rooms and cleanness of food storage room would be ensured. In addition to this, the cook engaged in preparation of food under the scheme would be trained to maintain hygiene and quality of food given to students, he added.