21 children dead in Bihar
Chhapra, Bihar: Twenty-one children are now dead after eating a free mid-day meal at their school in Bihar's Chhapra district, many of them below ten years of age. More than 30 others are in hospital. There have been angry protests as a grieving Chhapra buries its young near the school. Only 12 children have been given last rites yet, but political parties, in shocking haste, are already trading charges.
The ruling Janata Dal United has alleged that there is a conspiracy to destabilise the Nitish Kumar government. "The way the opposition of Bihar is responding...I feel that it is a big conspiracy. They want to destabilize the Bihar Government," said JD(U) leader KC Tyagi.
All opposition parties, including the Congress and the RJD's Lalu Yadav, have criticised the government. Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP, which was dumped by the JD(U) last month, said, "It took 15 hours to evacuate the children. This is criminal negligence and the state government is responsible for this." (Who said what)
At the Chhapra primary school, utensils, books and uniforms are scattered in a tragic reminder of Tuesday afternoon, when the children took ill after eatng a meal of rice, dal and soyabean. A distraught parent whose child is in hospital said, "The children came back crying from school and complained of a stomach-ache. We went to the school to check and saw many children lying sick." By the time the children were taken to the local hospital, two of them had already died. "The doctors found that some foreign chemical matter was present...they tried their best but there was so much poison in the food that they couldn't save them all," a senior official said.
Union Minister Pallam Raju said the mid-day meal served to children may have been contaminated. A preliminary inquiry shows the food had traces of an insecticide used on rice and wheat crops. The woman who cooked the meal and her son too have died. A case has been registered against the school's headmistress and teachers; the government says it just gives a cheque to schools and they are responsible for buying the rations. In Bihar, widespread corruption has been reported in the mid-day meal scheme, the world's largest school-feeding programme that reaches out to some 12 crore children in schools across the country.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/21-children-dead-in-bihar-protests-erupt-conspiracy-says-nitish-kumar-s-party-393294?pfrom=home-lateststories
The ruling Janata Dal United has alleged that there is a conspiracy to destabilise the Nitish Kumar government. "The way the opposition of Bihar is responding...I feel that it is a big conspiracy. They want to destabilize the Bihar Government," said JD(U) leader KC Tyagi.
At the Chhapra primary school, utensils, books and uniforms are scattered in a tragic reminder of Tuesday afternoon, when the children took ill after eatng a meal of rice, dal and soyabean. A distraught parent whose child is in hospital said, "The children came back crying from school and complained of a stomach-ache. We went to the school to check and saw many children lying sick." By the time the children were taken to the local hospital, two of them had already died. "The doctors found that some foreign chemical matter was present...they tried their best but there was so much poison in the food that they couldn't save them all," a senior official said.
Union Minister Pallam Raju said the mid-day meal served to children may have been contaminated. A preliminary inquiry shows the food had traces of an insecticide used on rice and wheat crops. The woman who cooked the meal and her son too have died. A case has been registered against the school's headmistress and teachers; the government says it just gives a cheque to schools and they are responsible for buying the rations. In Bihar, widespread corruption has been reported in the mid-day meal scheme, the world's largest school-feeding programme that reaches out to some 12 crore children in schools across the country.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/21-children-dead-in-bihar-protests-erupt-conspiracy-says-nitish-kumar-s-party-393294?pfrom=home-lateststories
