School students being treated in the Chhapra hospital. Telegraph picture

Chhapra/Patna, July 16: At least eight school children died today after eating the midday meal served to them in a government primary school at Masrakh in Saran district, around 90km northwest of Patna.

All the students belong to Gandaman primary school. While two children died in Masrakh itself, six died while being brought to Chhapra, the district headquarters of Saran.

Around 50 children are being treated in Chhapra sadar hospital, where doctors said the condition of 10 is serious. Even the school cook, Manju Kumari, has been admitted to the hospital.

The dead students have been identified as Anshu Kumar, Prahlad, Rahul, Kajal, Baby, Soni, Dipu Kumari and Piyush Kumar.

School principal Mina Kumari and other teachers have gone into hiding. Since the school is new, it has no proper building or kitchen. Hence, the food used to be cooked in the open.

“Prima facie, these children appear to be suffering from food poisoning but the exact cause of their ailment would be known only after detailed pathological investigations,” Chhapra sadar hospital deputy superintendent Dr Shambhu Nath Singh said.

Around 12 noon, the children were served lunch comprising rice and a curry made of potato and soyabeans. “The taste of the food was not good but I somehow ate it. While I was on my way back home, I vomited and fainted,” said eight-year-old Savita, a student of Class III, who is being treated at the hospital.

Savita’s father Surendra Prasad blamed the officials and school teachers for the tragedy as apart from Savita, his two other children — Mamata and Shipendra — study in the same school and they too have been hospitalised.

“The midday meal has become a joke and people responsible for supplying the food are interested about the cut money only,” he said.

Saran district magistrate Abhijeet Kumar Sinha, who is camping in the hospital, confirmed eight deaths. He claimed that the best possible treatment was being provided to those admitted in the hospital.

Villagers informed that the mustard oil used to prepare the vegetable curry appeared to be spurious as it carried a foul smell, said an official.

R. Laxmanan, director, Midday Meal Bihar, said: “Prima facie it appears to be a case of food poisoning. The exact reason can be ascertained only after the investigation.”

Midday meals are offered under a centrally-sponsored scheme. The government distributes free meals at state-run and aided primary schools with the aim of increasing enrolment, retention and attendance.

Under the scheme, foodgrain is lifted from Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns and, after inspection, is supplied to various schools. The school management committee comprising teachers, principals and some local representative is assigned the job of preparing the food. The committee generally hires a cook, mainly from the village where the school is located, to prepare the food.

The Opposition was quick to slam the government. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav said the tragedy had occurred because there was no monitoring.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad attacked chief minister Nitish Kumar. “There is no government in the state and children are dying because of the fight between the JD (U) and BJP,” said Lalu, the MP from Saran. Masrakh, however, falls under neighbouring Maharajganj constituency.

Amid attack from the Opposition, Nitish ordered a probe into the incident by a committee headed by Saran divisional commissioner Shashi Shekhar Sharma and DIG Vinod Kumar. The government has announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh to each of the families that lost their children in the tragedy.