18 students, headmistress fall ill after eating mid-day meal

Korba (C’garh), Sept 2 (PTI) As many as 18 students of agovernment primary school and its headmistress fell ill aftereating mid-day meal at a village in Chhattisgarh’s Surgujadistrict, officials said today. The incident took place yesterday afternoon at theprimary school run by Tribal Welfare Department in Sisilavillage panchayat near Ambikapur town. According to local officials, after the food was servedto teachers and students, headmistress Kamla Korva noticedsmell of some medicine while eating vegetables and immediatelyasked the staff not to give it to children, but by then somestudents had already ate it. After sometime, the condition of Korva deteriorated.Eighteen children also complained of vomiting and nausea,following which they all were rushed to Batoli communityhealth centre. "Korva and three other students, Akash, Priyanshu andSatyam, were shifted to Ambikapur medical college hospitallast evening while others were discharged after primarytreatment at a Community Health Centre," Surguja DistrictCollector Bhim Singh said, adding they all are out of danger. Irregularities in mid-day meal will not be tolerated andstern action will be taken against those found guilty, hesaid. Sonbhadra Self Help Group was tasked with cooking themid-day meal at the school. Local officials claimed that the smell in the vegetablescould be due to excess spraying of pesticide, but only a probecan confirm it. On August 27, at least 60 students of a governmentprimary school at Sundarpur village in Surguja district fellill allegedly after consuming mid-day meal. PTI COR TKP NSKNSDRYS