The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Delhi Chief Secretary on a recent incident of 22 students of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in East Delhi falling ill after consuming mid-day meal.
Taking suo motu cognisance of reports about the incident, the NHRC has asked the Delhi Government to submit a detailed report within four weeks and also directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police (East Delhi) to submit an action taken report in the matter.
The students aged between 7 and 14 years belonged to the school situated in Patparganj. They claimed to have found a dead rat in the food earlier this month. The Commission observed that the reports, if true, raised a serious issue of violation of human rights.
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The students were admitted to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital in Khicharipur. The food was supplied by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Dalit Uthan Evam Shiksha Samiti. It had allegedly been blacklisted earlier, but was again given the contract for food supply.
Other incidents of mid-day meal poisoning were earlier reported from various schools in the national Capital, thrice in July and November last year.