Mid-day meal: 27 children take ill

BANGALORE: Tension prevailed when a few students of BBMP Girls High School at Mathikere complained of nausea and headache after consuming mid-day meal supplied by Akshaya Patra Foundation on Thursday.Sources are yet to confirm if the incident occured due to food poisoning or water contamination. The samples of food and water are sent to Public Health Institute for examination. The cause for students taking sudden ill will be known on Sunday. Around 45 students, mostly of eighth and tenth standard, consumed food at around 9.45 am. They had reportedly consumed rice and vegetable curry (Majjige huli). After an hour, three students complained of headache and started vomitting.  Doctors who examined the students, directed the teachers to shift them to hospital. At about 1 pm, 27 students who complained of headache and vomitted, were rushed to K C General Hospital at Malleswaram, where they  were administered with IV fluid.Later, all the children who had consumed the food were treated at the hospital. Dr Vimala Patil, resident medical officer (RMO), K C General Hospital said all the 46 children were out of danger. “Except two children, all of them were discharged on Thursday evening.” ISKCON’s ClarificationMeanwhile, in a press release, the Akshaya Patra Foundation clarified that the food had been supplied from H K Hill Kitchen. The same food was supplied to about 85,000 children on Thursday. None of the other children had reported of any disorders.“We have traced the batch of the food that was supplied to this school. The same batch has been supplied to over 20 schools on the same route. None of the other schools have complained/ reported any problems with respect to the food supplied on Thursday including the immediately preceding school (Government Higher Primary School, Gokula) and the immediately succeeding school (MS Ramaiah High School). Hence it appears that the problem is local. However, we are further investigating the same,” said Bharath Das, PRO, ISCKON, Bangalore.