Bhadrak/Dhamnagar: A house lizard was found dead in the mid-day meal served at the Chudakuti Indragobinda Nodal school in the Dhamnagar block of Bhadrak Thursday. Eighty students became ill after having the meal. Collector Gyana Ranjan Das suspended a teacher.
The condition of three sick students is critical. They are under treatment at the district headquarters hospital.
Reports said about 15 to 20 students complained of giddiness and vomited minutes after eating the meal. They were administered saline drips and anti-biotic at Dhamnagar CHC.
The collector rushed to the hospital and took stock of the situation and later suspended assistant teacher Annirudha Das who was in-charge of the meal.
CDMO Dr Gitanjali Patnaik, MLA Muktikant Mandal, block chairperson Ashok Nayak, BDO Narahari Behera, tehsildar Charles Nayak, and SDPO Manoranjan Samal came to the CHC.
The meal was served to kids Thursday. As per guidelines, a teacher should first eat the meal before it is served to students. But here that was not done. In the first batch, 80 students were served meals. Later, a lizard was found in the meal and food distribution was stopped. Minutes later students were taken to the hospital with giddiness and vomiting. PNN