A dead lizard was reportedly discovered in a batch of sambar served as part of the midday meal at a government school in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvallur district on Friday, after which around 40 students were said to have fallen ill.
The meal was prepared under the government’s Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme for students at Kottaiyur Middle School in Kadambathur block. Following the incident, Tiruvallur Collector S. Kavitha removed two women cooks, Arthi and Dhanalakshmi, from duty, reported The Hindu.
The affected children were taken to a hospital following complaints of vomiting, dizziness and other symptoms, according to reports. The incident was reported at a village school with an enrolment of roughly 50 students.
The collector also ordered disciplinary proceedings against the school headmaster, a teacher and the block development officer responsible for overseeing the breakfast programme.
Initial findings suggested that the school kitchen, housed in a shed, could have allowed a lizard to enter the food, officials said. The school has been directed to carry out a thorough cleaning of the kitchen, get rid of insects and repaint the premises. As per reports, teachers have also been told to sample the meals before they are distributed to students as a precautionary measure.
In a similar incident, dead lizard was discovered in the mid-day meal being served at a government school in west Hari Nagar, prompting police to register a case and collect samples of the food for testing, an officer said in July, according to PTI.
No cases of food poisoning or illness among students or school employees have been reported following the incident, according to police.
The incident occurred on July 3 at Sarvodaya Co-educational Vidyalaya in Hari Nagar while the meal was being distributed, police said in a statement.
By the time the contamination was noticed, two or three portions had already been served. A school helper subsequently spotted the dead lizard in the food, following which the distribution was immediately halted to prevent more students from consuming it.
Police collected samples of the suspected contaminated food for laboratory examination. A case has been filed at Hari Nagar police station under Section 125 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which covers negligent acts that endanger human life or the personal safety of others. The investigation is ongoing, the officer said.
Meanwhile, 11 people, including seven children, were admitted to hospital in Maharashtra’s Palghar district after reportedly developing suspected food poisoning symptoms following the consumption of a birthday cake that allegedly contained a dead lizard, police said last month.
Authorities, along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have begun probing a bakery in Nalasopara that supplied the cake. The cake had been ordered for a woman’s birthday celebration on Saturday, an official said.
