Odisha: For second successive day, over 100 kids fall sick after meals in school

More than 130 tribal girls of a government-run residential school in Maoist-dominated Badapada Kanyashram in Malkangiri district fell ill Friday morning after eating flattened rice that allegedly got mixed with phenyl.

Officials from nearby Border Security Force camp who rescued the girls said 98 girls were affected, of which 35 students are in serious condition. BSF DIG JC Nayak said the jawans from Badapada camp evacuated the affected students and ferried them across the Balimela reservoir by speed boat. Badapada is 650 km south of Bhubaneswar.

The students in Badapada Kanyashram started vomiting and had loose motion after their breakfast, said Maklangiri district welfare officer Pitambar Nayak. Officials said the flattened rice may have being carried to school in a vehicle where it could have come in contact with the pheny.

The students were immediately taken to Chitrakonda community health centre and hospitalised. They are said to be better now. Parents of a few students, however, complained that the girls were repeatedly being given leftover food from previous night’s dinner which may have caused food poisoning.

On Thursday, over 130 students in Lanjigarh block of Kalahandi had fallen sick after eating mid-day meals in schools. Students from four schools at Bandhapari, Luma, Kubari and Dangari villages in Lanjigarh block, 450 km south of Bhubanesar had fallen sick consuming mid day meals supplied in their schools by Manna Trust, an NGO that supplies cooked meals.

Students complained of nausea and vomiting after their meals. They were initially admitted to Community Health Centre at Biswanathpur, but the condition of three of them including two girls deteriorated following which they were shifted to the district headquarters hospital in Bhawanipatna.