Hyderabad, July 9 (IANS) In yet another incident of food poisoning in government-operated residential schools in Telangana, 26 students were taken ill at a tribal residential school in Nagarkurnool district on Thursday.

The students fell ill after breakfast at Chenchu Tribal Government Residential School in Mannanur Village of Amrabad Mandal.

The students, shortly after breakfast, experienced symptoms of diarrhoea. The affected students were rushed to the Mannanur Government Hospital and then taken to other hospital due to unavailability of sufficient beds.

The students were made to lie on the floor as the hospital for treatment as the hospital administration cited lack of beds. Parents registered their protest with the authorities over lack of facilities at the hospital.

The affected students were later shifted to Achampet Area Hospital.

Some of the students said that they saw insects in the ‘khichdi’ served to them in the breakfast.

The incident comes just a few days after food poisoning incident at Kamareddy Gurukul School. As many as 33 students were hospitalised after they fell sick following lunch.

Two incidents of food poisoning in residential schools since the beginning of the new academic year has once again spotlighted the concerns over the safety of food served to the students at residential schools.

In July last year, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had directed the state government to investigate reports of over 800 incidents of suspected food poisoning and submit a detailed report.

NHRC chairperson Justice V. Ramasubramanian said the Commission had taken serious note of the poisoning cases. It came to NHRC’s attention that around 48 student deaths involving 886 incidents of food poisoning in gurukul schools across Telangana have occurred.

Meanwhile, students at Telangana University in Nizamabad district staged a massive protest on Thursday demanding a resolution to the drinking water crisis.

Expressing their distress over the lack of a proper water supply in recent days, they protested by blocking an RTC bus that had arrived at the university.

–IANS

ms/mr