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Saharsa: Eleven-year-old Radha Kumari and her brother Raja Kumar study in Class 5 at the Madhyamik School in Baluaha village in Bihar’s Saharsa district. About a month ago, Raja stopped eating the school’s midday meal after he spotted insects crawling in it. Radha continued eating at the school.

On May 7, Radha returned home from school and felt nauseous and dizzy. Her head ached and she was repeatedly vomiting. “She had eaten dal and rice in school in which a baby snake was found,” said her father, a shaken Pramod Shah.

Pramod, a mason, was working in a village nearby when he heard his daughter was terribly sick. He came back home only to find that more than 40 children of the village were sick – all of them had eaten the school lunch.

The food is prepared in a centralised canteen – not at the school itself, but at a large common kitchen that prepares meals for government school students across the district and then distributes them. The District Education Officer (DEO), Hemchandra, said, “The centralised canteen distributes food to over 150 schools in the area.”

Students admitted at the Sadar Hospital, Saharsa, after they ate a mid-day meal. Photo: Special Arrangement.

Other parents in the village also said insects had been found in the midday meal before. Kumud Thakur, a daily wage labourer, said in a heavy voice over the phone, “Our children........

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