10 fall sick after rat cooked in 'dal' in UP midday meal

Muzaffarnagar, Dec3: At least 10 children were hospitalized on Tuesday after they were fed 'dal' which had a dead rat in it during the midday meal in a government school.

The meal, meant for students between Class 6 and 8, had been prepared by an NGO called Jan Kalyan Sanstha Committee which is based in Hapur.

A teacher who consumed the food along with the children has also been hospitalized.

All the students and the teacher were later discharged from the hospital.

According to reports, the dead rat was found at the bottom of the vessel in which the 'urad dal' had been cooked.

"By that time, many of the students had already eaten the food and had started vomiting," said a student.

Talking to reporters after the incident Ram Sagar Tripathi, a local education official, called the shocking incident an example of "carelessness".

He said, "The Jan Kalyan Sanstha Vikas Committee prepares the food for the mid-day meal scheme. Today, there was a dead rat in the dal. We stopped serving it as soon as it was detected. Nine children had already consumed the dal and were taken to hospital."

The official said action would be initiated against the NGO concerned.

In recent weeks the UP government has made headlines, for all the wrong reasons, with its mid-day meal scheme.

Last week, a video from the Sonebhadra district showed a cook at a mid-day meal kitchen mixing one litre of milk with a bucket of water for 81 children in the school.

In September, students of a government school in Mirzapur district were seen in a video being served roti with salt during the midday meal.

The website of the Uttar Pradesh Mid-Day Meal Authority, the overseeing body for these meals in the state, describes an elaborate menu that is supposed to be served to the children at the state-run primary schools. It includes pulses, rice, rotis and vegetables. Fruits and milk are included on certain days, according to the meal chart.

These meals are supposed to provide a minimum of 450 calories to each child every day and must include at least 12 grams of protein and should be served to every child at least 200 days a year.

According to the state government, it has provided mid-day meals in more than 1.5 lakh primary and middle schools across the state and more than one crore children are supposed to benefit from the scheme.