All 12 children of Bharari middle school in Renuka division of Sirmaur district who were taken ill after consuming contaminated mid-day meal and were admitted to hospital were discharged on Tuesday. Tension prevailed in the village on Monday when the first lot of children of classes VI to VIII consumed the infected meal of rice and dal and started vomiting and complained of stomach ache. About a dozen children were taken to the Primary Health Centre Nauradhar and were given first aid by the lower level staff. There was no doctor on duty in the PHC but some additional staff was sent by the CMO later, complained the villagers. About 40 other children were given first aid at an infirmary in Bharari.
All the posts of doctor in three PHCs of Sub-Tehsil Nauradhar are vacant.
The government had ordered the Deputy Director, Primary Education, to submit a report in a week, said the Chief Parliamentary Secretary from the district Vinay Kumar. But parents of children of nearby villages allege that there no check on impurities in the rations supplied for the mid-day meal. No hygiene norms are followed by the mid-day meal staff and teachers, said the parents. More than 150 schoolchildren had fallen sick in Karog and Haripurdhar villages in the same area some time ago. Surprisingly, nothing has come out of the inquiry conducted by the SDM, said the villagers.
