A day after students fell ill, Matunga school, mid-day meal agency face BMC inquiry

On Tuesday, 24 school students from class VI to VII had suffered from food poisoning after consuming the khichdi that was served to them as part of the mid-day meal. All the 24 students were rushed to tertiary-care Sion Hospital by 5.30 pm and were hospitalized for a day.

The school currently has 800 students of which only 220 students, between class VI to VIII, are served mid-day meals every day. Even on Tuesday, all 220 students were served mid-day meal. “As soon as students complained of uneasiness and started puking we stopped all other from consuming the khichdi that was served hence the number of students who fell ill stopped too. We rushed them to hospital immediately then,” said R R Tiwari, principal of the school.

The principal also claims that he himself tasted the khichdi as everyday and then the food was served to the children. “The agency has been supplying mid-day meal in our school for the past five years. Never has such an incident occurred before. We too were shocked. We have already filed a police complaint against the agency,” added Tiwari.

Of the 24 students admitted in civic-run Sion Hospital, 22 were discharged on Wednesday morning while the remaining two were discharged in the evening, Sion Hospital Dean Dr Avinash Supe said. “We had admitted them for a day to make sure their medical parameters were normal. None of the students required an ICU admission,” he added.

Meanwhile the samples of khichdi were collected by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors on Tuesday following the incident of food poisoning in the students aged between 13 to 14 years. According to FDA joint commissioner for Mumbai, Suresh Annapure, Priyadarshini Niradhar Mahila Mandal— the distributor the khichdi in Matunga-based Dayanand school — were given a license to operate in the city by the FDA.

Discussing the prima facie evidences, Annapure told Newsline, “There can be several reasons for food poisoning. The water for the food may have been spurious or some expired ingredient may have been put to use. We have already sent the samples to Pune for analysis and they will submit a report soon.”