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| India-Pakistan | |
| Principal in India Tainted Lunch Deaths Is Arrested | |
| 2013-07-24 | |
[NY Times] Nine days after she disappeared, the principal of a school in eastern India where 23 children died after eating a lunch tainted with pesticide was arrested Wednesday by the police. The principal, Meena Kumari, had been on her way to surrender before a judge in Chapra
Ms. Kumari was among the most wanted people in India after she fled her school in the village of Dharmasati Gandawa in Bihar's Saran district when the children in her school started vomiting soon after eating a free lunch. Forensic tests have confirmed that the cooking oil used to prepare the meal of rice, beans, potato curry and soy balls was contaminated with pesticide. Ms. Kumari bought the cooking oil from a store owned by her husband, who might have stored the cooking oil in a container once filled with pesticide, the police said. Since the only other adult at the school was the school's cook, who also fell deathly ill, Ms. Kumari's departure meant that the ailing children were left to fend for themselves, according to villagers and state officials. Some staggered home to die in the arms of their parents. The children complained that the meal tasted odd, but Ms. Kumari insisted that it was fine, officials said. In the days after, television journalists picked through parts of Ms. Kumari's empty house, showing rooms filled with old bicycles and other items. Some parents buried their children in front of the school as a way of protesting the deaths. School lunch programs became universal in India after a 2001 order by the country's Supreme Court, and free meals are now served to 120 million children -- by far the largest such program in the world. The program has been credited with improving school attendance. With some surveys suggesting that nearly half of Indian children suffer some form of malnutrition, it also serves a vital health purpose. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 My God, its horrid. I noticed something I didn't when I read this in the morning and had no words. She said the food was fine. She didn't get sick. She didn't taste it. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2013-07-24 19:40 |
| #1 :( F*ck |
| Posted by: Shipman 2013-07-24 18:33 |