Patna: The mid-day meal tragedy has sparked a blame game with the Bihar government on Friday refuting Centre’s contention of having sent alerts to 12 districts including Saran, where 23 children died after consuming food, over shortcomings in the implementation of the scheme. “We are surprised over the assertions of the Union government over sending alerts...no alerts ever came to us,” principal secretary HRD Amarjeet Sinha told reporters here. The Union HRD ministry, which pilots the programme, claimed that it had alerted 12 Bihar districts after loopholes were detected in executing the scheme. Also read: Scorpion found in mid-day meal in Odisha, 39 fall ill Sinha said a general communique had come in April regarding poor performance in coverage of mid-day meal scheme in 144 districts of the country. In fact a central government report praised performance of Bihar in increasing coverage area under mid-day meal scheme, Sinha accompanied by director, Mid-day meal scheme R Lakshamanan said. Meanwhile, parents of over 20 sick children from the school receiving treatment at the Patna Medical College and Hospital once again came face to face with death when a minor explosion in an air conditioner was reported in the premier hospital's pediatric ward. Hospital staff worked hard to contain a gas leak from the AC cylinders after possibly an electric short circuit.
