Parents of the kids who died in the meal tragedy at the foundation laying ceremony on Wednesday. Telegraph picture

They lost their children to a poisoned midday meal a few months back but on Wednesday, the parents of the deceased came out of their gloomy closets for a better Gandaman.

In an effort to make Dharmasati-Gandaman a model village, the state government has lined up ambitious projects worth Rs 3.5 crore. The parents laid the foundation of several projects. On July 16, as many as 23 children of Gandaman Primary School at Dharmasati-Gandaman village in Chhapra, around 100km northwest of Patna, had died after eating the midday meal served in the school. The food was laced with a toxic insecticide.

The institution was closed down and the students were shifted to the middle school in the same village. For two months, the school did not prepare the midday lunch that is part of the world’s largest such scheme that attracts thousands of students from poor families to classrooms. Parents refused to send their children to school and those who did packed homemade food for their wards.

Soon after the tragedy, the government had assured the residents of developing the village and providing them all the modern facilities.

The parents of the children who had died in the lunch tragedy laid the foundation stones of several development projects amid a gathering of villagers and a battery of senior government officers.

District public relations officer Bindusar Mandal said: “Foundation stones for a health centre, a school building, an anganwadi centre and two roads were laid.”

The government is committed to making Dharmasati-Gandaman an “Adarsh Gaon” equipped with modern facilities. The district administration has been striving to achieve what it had committed soon after the tragedy struck the village. Mandal added that the school building would be built at a cost of Rs 73 lakh and the anganwadi centre would be constructed at a cost of Rs 8 lakh. A kitchen shade would be made at a cost of Rs 1.85 lakh, two roads at a cost of Rs 25 lakh, the renovation work of the lone community hall would be done at a cost of Rs 1 lakh and installing handpumps and constructing toilets would cost Rs 13 lakh.

Saran divisional commissioner Shashi Shekhar Sharma urged the villagers to be vigilant and take active part in social work. “The villagers are always welcome with their suggestions and their demands would be met. Parents should take interest in the studies of their children and should always remain vigilant,” he said. District magistrate Kundan Kumar inspected the block office and seeing the dilapidated condition of the newly constructed Agriculture Bhavan, he ordered an FIR to be lodged against the contractor. He also asked the police to lodge an FIR against the block development officer.

In the July 16 midday meal tragedy, police investigations revealed that Gandaman Primary School principal’s husband, Arjun Rai, had purchased the pesticide — monocrotophos — from a Gopalganj-based sugar factory before the incident.