NEW DELHI: HRD ministry’s senior official’s spot report on the MDM tragedy in Gandamal village of Masrakh block in Saran district has blamed the school principal for the death of more than 20 children and pointed out systemic failure of the state government in monitoring the flagship programme.

The report — prepared after talking to parents and students — has also said there were serious problems with the storage of grains and other food items.

Ministry sources said it is likely that the cooking medium used for soyabean subzi was predominantly pesticide. "Earlier it was thought oil was put in a pesticide container. But it seems that the lady cook used pesticide," a source said. According to him, the subzi looked black and even smelt differently. "But the school principal insisted the cooking medium cannot be bad since it had come from her husband’s shop. When students refused to eat, the principal scolded and forced them to eat," the source said. Worse, he said, when children started falling sick, the principal instead of reaching out for help, panicked and fled. "Crucial one and half to two hours were lost. Had these children been rushed to hospital immediately few lives could have been saved," he said, adding that the forensic report released on Saturday confirms unusually high level of pesticide content.

"It was the clear case of bad storage of food and cooking material. The kitchen itself is in a pitiable condition," he said.

The report also points out that the MDM apparatus in Bihar — especially the monitoring mechanism — does not follow the elaborate guidelines. School secretary R Bhattacharya told TOI, "Final view on the report has not been taken. We would send our comments to the state government very soon."

Meanwhile, HRD minister MM Pallam Raju said "collective responsibility" should be taken for the tragedy rather than indulge in blame game. He said the new committee to be headed by him would meet shortly and work towards strengthening the quality aspect of the MDM. "It is certain that we will be strengthening the mechanism towards implementing the scheme," he said. However, he said reports of the monitoring mechanism should be taken seriously by the state governments and immediate action be taken to rectify the problems. In case of Bihar he said the state government was aware that Saran was among the 12 poor performing districts.