Maganoor school shocker: Worm-infested rice served again for mid-day meals

After Wednesday’s incident, many students stayed away from school. With the previous agency’s contract terminated, a new agency was brought in to prepare food. However, when the meal was served, students discovered worms in the rice. Teachers were immediately alerted and discarded the contaminated rice. Fresh rice was quickly arranged, and bananas were distributed to the students as a stopgap. By 3:45 PM, lunch was finally served.

Narayanpet: Despite over 50 students falling ill after due to food poisoning on Wednesday, the Zilla Parishad High School at Maganoor did not learn any lessons as students complained again on Thursday about worm-infested being served for mid-day meals. Following the Wednesday incident, many students did not turn up for the school. As the agency’s contract was cancelled, a new agency was roped in to cook food for the students.

However, when food was served to students, they noticed worms in the rice. Immediately, the school teachers were alerted and they dumped the rice in the bin. A new bag of rice was arranged immediately and bananas were served for students. At about 3.45 pm, lunch was served to the students.

Meanwhile, one more official was suspended and three officers were issued show cause notices in connection with the incident. While District Education Officer Abdul Ghani was suspended, show cause notices were issued to RDO Ramchander, MPDO Rahmatuddin and Food Inspector Neelima. Additional Collector Ben Shalom is conducting an enquiry into the incident.

The incident has sent shock waves across the State, more so because the students from this school, who were admitted to the Government General Hospital following Wednesday’s food poisoning incident, were served worm-infested upma for breakfast at the hospital on Thursday morning. The 15 students were served upma, kichdi and other dishes for breakfast in the hospital. However, while consuming the food, the students noticed worms in the kichdi and upma. They immediately alerted the nurses on duty and hospital staff, who then threw the contaminated food in the bin.