Patna, July 18: A sweet gesture to treat students to jalebis landed a headmistress of a government middle school in a soup.

The headmistress of Rajkiya Balak Madhya Vidyalaya in Begumpur had to feed hungry students with the sweet delicacy after the two cooks of the school suddenly took a day off citing health reasons.

According to headmistress Usha Tripathy, both the cooks complained of viral flu and went on leave — two days after 23 children lost their lives to the government’s midday meal scheme in Saran.

After the cooks failed to report today, the 300 and odd students of the Patna City-based school enquired about the lunch from the headmistress. She said she was forced to order 15kg of jalebis for the students because they were hungry.

However, the move has landed Tripathy in trouble. The sub-inspector of schools of one of the circles in Patna City, Ram Dahin Prasad, took a cue of the matter. He has sought an explanation from the headmistress as to why she had gone a step ahead to feed hungry students the food, which does not fall under the midday meal scheme.

Rajdeep Kumar, an assistant teacher with the school, narrated what forced the headmistress to take such a step.

“Students of classes I to VIII study in the school. There are 400 students, out of which at least 300 have the midday meal everyday. Morning classes start at 6.30am and continues till 11.45am. Till yesterday, the two cooks (Savita Devi and Ankita Devi), were regular to the school. However, today both of them fell ill suddenly. The children started to enquire about food, but there was no one to prepare it,” Kumar said.

Sources said the headmistress had asked the students what they wanted to eat and most of them expressed the desire for jalebis.

“I have done nothing wrong. The children come to the school very early. Most of the times we serve food by 9.30am. Sometimes, if the cooks come late, the food is served after 11am. We have always ensured quality food and it is served according to the registered menu. Today, when the cooks did not turn up, the children felt hungry. I asked them what they wanted to eat and they said jalebis. I went to a shop and the jalebis were made in front of me. I tasted one and waited for at least half-an-hour before serving them to the students,” the headmistress said.

Some of the students, who had the Indian delicacy, were all praises for their teacher. “We were hungry and madam gave us jalebis. I liked it,” said a student of Class III.

However, Tripathy’s actions raised doubts about her intentions. Prasad, the sub-inspector of schools of one of the circles (consisting of 45 government schools) in Patna City, said Tripathy should not have overstepped.

“We are inspecting schools since the Saran incident. By the time we reached Rajkiya Balak Madhya Vidyalaya, the students had left. The headmistress said the two cooks were absent today. Since both of them were present all through the week, their sudden absence might be a result of fear psychosis. However, we have not been able to talk to them about their absence from duty yet. The headmistress said she had checked the jalebis before serving them to the students. However, jalebi doesn’t feature on the registered menu of the midday meal scheme. I will be inform my seniors about the incident. They should be kept in the loop,” Prasad said.

Prasad said during inspections today, he noticed many students were not willing to eat the midday meals.

“At Kanhai Lal Madhya Vidyalaya in Chutkiya Bazaar, many students said their parents had told them not to eat in school. We are visiting the schools and tasting the food in front of the students to gain their confidence after the Saran tragedy,” the officer said.

As many as 23 children, aged between 5 and 10 years, have died in Saran over the past two days. All the children were students of Gandaman Primary School (Class I to V) in Saran, 90km northwest of Patna. Villagers said the container in which the edible oil had been kept contained the fatal compound and it led to the tragedy. Education minister P.K. Shahi said prima facie it appeared that the mustard oil, which was used for cooking the food, was adulterated with organophosphorus.