Bihar pupils find rat in their school meal just four months after poison food scandal which claimed 23 lives

In yet another blow to the Bihar midday meal scheme, students of a Patna school found a dead rat in the food served to them by the school authorities.



The incident, which triggered widespread protests in the area, took place on Friday, around four months after a poisonous midday meal claimed the lives of 23 children in the Gandaman village of Mashrakh block in Saran district.

Rodent: School children showing a rat found in their midday meal food, provided by the school administration at Saidpur Government School in Patna

The rat was found while the meal was being served to the students of a primary school in Saidpur area. The children refused to eat the food and staged a protest on the school campus.



They were soon joined by parents and local residents, who later blocked the Saidpur-Bhikhna Pahadi Road for hours.



When the students of a middle school on the same campus came to know about the incident, they also refused to have the meal. Principal of the school, Manju Kumari, told Mail Today that the children did not take food after the rat was found in it.



Kumari said she asked the staff concerned to stop serving the meal as soon as she came to know about it.



She said the school authorities would soon conduct an inquiry into the incident. District education department officials said the matter was being investigated.



Sunil Kumar Tiwari, in-charge of the midday meal scheme in Patna district, told Mail Today that appropriate action should be taken against the people responsible for the lapse.



The meal, according to reports, was provided by a non-governmental organisation, which later claimed that the rat might have fallen into the dal on the school campus itself.

