DEADLY MID MEAL HEAD TEACHER
MEENA DEVI ARRESTED
Police in India –Bihar
have arrested the head teacher of a school where 23 children died after eating
food contaminated with insecticide last week.Meena Kumari had been sought since the tragedy in eastern Bihar
state. She handed herself in on 24th July,2013,Wednesday.Police
believe she can help explain how the deadly insecticide ended up in the free
school lunch.In all, 47 primary school children fell ill after consuming the
meal of rice and soybeans.
The Mid-Day meal
scheme, introduced to combat hunger and boost school attendance, provides free
food for 120 million children in 1.2 million schools across India.It often
suffers from poor hygiene, and poisoning outbreaks occur from time to time,
although rarely if ever with such deadly results.Patna-based journalist
Amarnath Tewary says Meena Kumari was on her way to the court to hand herself
in, but police stopped her and arrested her before she could go inside."We
have arrested her for questioning," said Sujeet Kumar, the police chief of
Saran district, where the children died.Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and
other state officials have been criticised for being slow to respond to the
tragedy."I assure you, those found guilty will be taken to court and
punished," he told a news conference shortly after the arrest.Locals
complained that it took days for any top-level official to visit the village of
Dharmasati Gandaman, where the poisoning occurred on 16 July.
Prof. John Kurakar
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