23 students belonging to Class 5 and Class 6 from the Telangana State Social Welfare Residential School for girls in Nizamabad were hospitalized on Saturday as they fell ill after consuming the food served in the school.
The students in the welfare school fell ill after having brinjal curry, which was served for dinner on Friday. The curry was undercooked, said Yedapally Mandal Education Officer Satyanarayana.
He said that the children initially suffered diarrhoea in the night and later suffered dehydration after vomiting in the morning, following which they were rushed to Bodhan area hospital.
According to reports, of the 23 children, 11 were kept under observation.
Speaking to TNM, District Education Officer, Nampally Rajesh said, “All the students are safe. They have been discharged now.”
Dismissing the reports of the school providing poor quality of food, he said, “This is the first such instance reported from the school.”
However, contradictory to the claims made by the DEO and MEO, who said that the students suffered diarrhoea because of eating undercooked brinjal curry, school principal, A Rajendra Prasad said, “The students suffered diarrhoea after having sambar in excessive quantities.”
“The sambar was tasty, hence these small children had them in excessive quantity, following which they suffered motions,” he claimed.
He said that they take extreme care in looking after the cooking in the school. The food is provided to the school by a private caterer.
“We often make visits to inspect the quality of school. There was never such an incident of unhygienic food being provided for the students,” Prasad said.
In a similar incident in October, 72 students from the BC welfare school, Jaggampeta, East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh fell ill after having the mid-day meals provided in the school.
Following this, the students were rushed to Kakinada General Hospital for better treatment. After being administered some saline and anti-biotics, the students recovered.