50 students fall ill after eating phenyl-laced mid-day meal in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: More than 50 students of a school in Malkangiri district in Odisha fell ill Friday after consuming breakfast that apparently was laced with phenyl.

The Badapada Education Complex, where the incident occurred, is a residential school run by the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Development Department of the Odisha government. The student strength of the school is about 250 in Class 1 to 8.

Students complained of stomach pain and vomiting after eating the food and were taken to the Janbai dispensary before being shifted to the Balimela Dam Project Hospital in Chitrakonda.

Sources said the students had flattened rice with sugar for breakfast. The flattened rice bags had apparently come in contact with phenyl that had been spilled on the floor.

After the breakfast, 50 of the younger children started complaining of stomach pain and vomiting whereas the senior students were normal. They were taken to a nearby dispensary before being rushed in a BSF ambulance to the Chitrakonda hospital. Their condition is stated to be stable.

This was the third incident of contamination of mid-day meals in Odisha in the last 24 hours. In Kalahandi, 80 students took ill on Thursday. Another 40 students were hospitalised in Gumma block of Gajapati in a similar incident.