UP: 80 Students Fall Sick After Eating 'Chhole, Poori' At School In Deoria

As many as 80 students fell sick with symptoms of stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhoea after consuming food at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Ashram Method Inter College in Mehroona village in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria. The incident took place after students had dinner Sunday night. After dinner, some students began experiencing vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach pain, dizziness, and chills.

Children are in a stable condition and an investigation into the case is underway, District Magistrate Divya Mittal said and assured that action would be taken against those found responsible.

An official statement released Monday evening said some students at the government-run school reportedly fell ill due to food poisoning. All students are safe, and a medical team remains at the school as a precaution, the statement said.

While two students are receiving treatment at Maharishi Devraha Baba Medical College, the remaining received primary treatment from a team of doctors led by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at the school itself.

District Magistrate Mittal and Superintendent of Police Sankalp Sharma visited the medical college to check on the students.

A team from the Food Safety and Drug Administration inspected the premises’ kitchen and storage area and collected seven samples, including prepared bread, lentils, vegetables, chilli powder, chickpeas, mustard oil, and mixed pickles, Assistant Commissioner of Food Safety Vinay Kumar Sahay noted. The samples were collected in the presence of the school’s director, Rajkumar Gupta, and a notice regarding storage and kitchen deficiencies is also being issued.

The samples have been sent to a food laboratory for testing, and further action will be taken based on the results, Sahay said.

The government-run school has 326 enrolled students from classes 6 to 12.

According to sources, students reported eating ‘poori’ and ‘chhole’ the night before. The ‘chhole’, prepared in the day, was served again with ‘poori’ in the evening, leading to the students’ illnesses, they added.

(With PTI inputs)

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