Patna:
When the news spread that there was a gas leak at the main government hospital in Patna, parents rushed out carrying their young children in their arms.
25 children were admitted earlier this week to the Patna Medical College and Hospital after severe poisoning from the free mid-day meal served to them at their school in Chhapra, about 50 miles north of the capital. Another 23 children have died because the hot lunch was contaminated with insecticide, stirring a national debate on the massive free lunch scheme and how it is implemented.
Hospital officials later said there was no gas leak and that a wire linked to an air conditioner had caught fire; the children admitted for food poisoning were not in this ward, but their worried parents didn't want to take any chances.
After being reassured that the air conditioning problem had been corrected, the parents brought their children back into the hospital.
In Chhapra, angry villagers want to know why nobody has been held accountable or arrested for the gross negligence that led to so many deaths. "Our children were murdered," said Rakeshwar Mahto, who lost three grand-children in the tragedy.
Investigators say crucial information will be provided by the headmistress and her husband, who allegedly supplied the school with groceries. But the couple, which disappeared when the children began throwing up at the school on Monday, remains unfound.
Senior state officials have said the post-mortem reports of the children who died confirmed that insecticide was either in the food or cooking oil. Lab results with more details on the chemicals are awaited.
Local villagers, however, have said the problem appeared to be with a side dish of soya and potatoes, not rice. Children who did not eat the side dish were fine, even though they had eaten the rice and lentils, several villagers said.