Chhapra/Patna: The head mistress of the government school in Chhapra whose 23 children died in the mid-day meal tragedy suspected to have been caused by poisoned food was absconding, as it emerged that the free food served did not undergo any quality checks.
More cases of kids falling ill across nation
The death toll rose to 23 after it came to the knowledge of the district administration on Thursday that one child was buried by family members without keeping the authorities informed, Saran District Magistrate Abhijit Sinha said. 24 children and a woman cook Manju Devi were under treatment at the Patna Medical College and Hospital.
No arrests have been made, two days after the incident, as a mass grave outside the primary school at Dharmasati Gandavan village where the dead were buried bore mute testimony to the tragedy.
"This school will not run... we will not allow it," said Rakeshwar Mahato who lost his grand-daughter in the tragedy. "This is where our children were murdered," he said, defending the decision to bury the children just outside the school premises as a mark of protest by the families.
Sinha told PTI that Meena Devi, the principal of the school, is absconding along with her husband and the police were conducting raids at their possible hideouts. The grocery from where the items for the midday meal were brought belonged to Meena's husband, it was stated.
The principal, against whom an FIR has been lodged, has already been suspended by the state administration.
Amardeep Sinha, Principal Secretary, Bihar said the case seemed to be one of 'poisoning of food' and not 'food poisoning'. He said the State Forensic Science Laborotary (SLFL) was conducting investigations and their report would be out on Friday.
State education minister P.K. Sahi said on Wednesay a preliminary investigation suggested that the food served to the children contained an organophosphate used as an insecticide on rice and wheat crops. He also alleged there was a political conspiracy to destabilise the Nitish Kuamr government.
Bihar's Director of mid-day meal programme R. Lakshamanan said inquiries into the Saran tragedy showed that standing orders like quality check of food and its maintenance by teachers and cooks were not observed at the school.
As the tragedy created a scare, he admitted that in many schools children are refusing to take food packets provided to them under the programme. The midday meal scheme, a flagship programme of the central government, covers 70,000 schools of Bihar providing food to 1.25 crore children.
HRD Ministry sets up another committee to monitor mid-day meal
New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday decided to set up a committee to review the implementation of its flagship mid-day meal scheme and monitor better the quality of food served and ensure hygien standards.
HRD Ministry, which pilots the programme, claimed on Thursday that it had alerted 12 Bihar districts after shortcomings were found in executing the scheme.
"What has happened is an unfortunate incident. We are pained by the death of young children and 23 of them. The focus should be to see it does not recur", HRD Minister M.M. Pallam Raju told reporters here as he announced the decision to set up the committee.
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.
"We have decided to form another 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 committee could be headed by the HRD Minister and consist of about 20 members members both from government side and from the civil society group.
"The expectation is that the committee would be genuinely critical of what is happening," they said, adding it would meet once in every three months.
Asked if any warning was issued to Bihar by the existing committee earlier this year after some shortcomings in the implementation of the programme were identified, 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 on the sidelines of a function. He, however, said they do not wish to highlight the issue right now and play a blamegame over it as the death of the children have shocked all.
Next: Bihar minister attacked by mob over meal tragedy
 

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.