11 students fall ill after drinking water during midday meal

Chhapra: Eleven students of a government school fell ill after drinking contaminated water during their midday meal in Bihar's Saran district today, just a day after 150 others reported sick after eating at school.Official sources said two girl students of the middle school at Molnapur in Saran district fell unconscious on drinking water from a hand pump installed by the government after their midday meal.Soon nine more students complained of uneasiness and all of them were taken to Gharkha health centre, the sources said.District Magistrate Abhijeet Sinha and Superintendent of Police Sujeet Kumar visited the hospital and the children were shifted to Patna Medical College and Hospital.Sinha later said all the 11 children were stable at the hospital.[caption id="attachment_1003747" align="alignleft" width="380"] Midday meal scheme. AFP photo[/caption]Twenty three students of Dharmasati Gandaman primary school in Saran district had died after eating poisonous midday meal on July 16.Another four students fell ill after drinking contaminated water from a tube well in a government school under Kauchaikot block in neighbouring Gopalganj district during the day.Two other persons who drank from the well to fell ill, official sources said. Altogether 150 students fell ill yesterday after eating midday meals at two schools in Jamui and Arwal districts of Bihar yesterday.While 55 students of a government middle school fell ill after eating midday meal provided by an NGO at Kalyuga village in Jamui district, 95 others of Chamandi primary school in Arwal fell ill after the meal.PTI