Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Dec 21: Over 140 students, who complained of nausea, vertigo, dysentery etc within minutes of consuming midday meal on Thursday December 20, were rushed to hospitals and treated for food poisoning. All of them are said to be out of danger.
The students who took ill belonged to two schools in different districts, Chimmamagi school in Hungund taluk, Bagalakote district, and government higher primary school in Hagalur village, Siruguppa taluk, Ballari district.
In both the schools, the food had turned poisonous as lizards fell into them. At Chickamauga School, a student noticed a lizard in the food being served. By the time, several students had started eating their lunch, and they turned sick and began throwing up. 105 students from this school were referred to hospital.
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Bagalakote district health officer, Anant Desai, said that all the students were referred to hospital as a measure of abundant precaution, and that 101 were discharged after observation. The other four too are out of danger and they would be discharged on Friday, he added.
In view of the negligence, all the three cooks who attended to cooking in the school were dismissed from service. Bagalakote district deputy director of public instruction, M R Kamakshi, said that midday meal would not be provided to students till Monday as the fear of food has sunk in their minds. She said that they would speak to the students and their parents, infuse a sense of confidence, and then begin to serve food.
In Hagalur primary school, 40 students who had already started consuming the meal before the lizard was detected, were taken to hospital. Ballari superintendent of police, Arun Rangarajan, said that some students reported to have seen a lizard in the food. Some of the students threw up and several others had dysentery. Such students were given IV fluids, he added. 19 out of these students were taken to a government hospital after all were checked for health complications at the primary health centre.