-The Indian Express Just a few days back, the Bihar Human Resource Development department was gloating over having extended the mid-day meal scheme to 591 more schools across Bihar. Two days after the worst tragedy to have hit what is India's flagship education scheme and the world's largest school nutrition programme, the department finds itself at a loss for words. While the Centre Thursday decided to constitute a monitoring committee to look...
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Bihar midday meal tragedy raises concerns about food security bill
-Reuters Raipur/Patna: The deaths of at least 23 children who were poisoned after eating a free school meal has triggered an outcry over food safety just as the ruling Congress party is set to launch an ambitious plan to feed 800 million poor, with an eye on elections due within a year. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi‘s national subsidised food project includes free school meals and expands existing handouts to make it probably...
More »Bihar tragedy: Children refuse free midday meals after deaths
-AFP PATNA: Thousands of school children were refusing free meals in Bihar, fearful of being poisoned, after 22 children died from eating lunch apparently contaminated with insecticide, officials said on Thursday. The children, aged four to 12, died after eating lentils, vegetables and rice cooked at a village school in Bihar on Tuesday, sparking violent protests and an investigation into the cause. Some 30 children remain ill in hospitals in the state capital...
More »The poisoned plate
-The Hindu The fatal consequences of having a routine midday meal for at least 22 children in Bihar's Saran district expose the chronic neglect of school education in a large part of India. That governments cannot find a small piece of land for a school and are unable to store food materials without the risk of contamination is a telling commentary on their commitment to universal primary education. The Bihar horror...
More »Now, 20-member panel to scrutinize midday meal quality
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In the aftermath of the Bihar mid-day meal (MDM) tragedy that resulted in the death of more than 20 children, the HRD ministry on Thursday announced setting up a new 20-member committee to go into the quality aspect of the MDM scheme nationwide. The committee, to be headed by HRD minister M M Pallam Raju, would have secretaries of ministries of women & child development, health,...
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