The Telangana High Court, on Wednesday, pulled up the state government over repeated cases of food poisoning caused by mid-day meals or the food served in government schools or residential schools.

The BRS and the BJP also slammed the government for the rising incidence of food poisoning in the state. The government also came under fire after the additional advocate general blamed the packaged snack Kurkure for the students falling ill yesterday in Maganoor of the Narayanpet district.

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While students fell ill in the school at Narayanpet twice in a week, a student, Shailaja, died following a bout of food poisoning at a residential school at Wankidi in the Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.

On 18 November, 18 students fell ill in a Zilla Parishad high school in Burugupalli of the Karimnagar district. A petition was filed before Chief Justice Alok Aradhe against the poor quality food served during mid-day meals alleging that the standards were not being followed. The court heard the petition and ordered the government to file a counter.

When the government’s counsel sought a week to file the counter, the court wanted to know why it would take so long to get details from the district officer. “Will you respond only if the children die,” the court asked.

The court wondered whether officers would take action only when they get orders. The additional advocate general told the court that the latest bout of food poisoning at the Maganoor School was due to Kurkure.

Yesterday, the local Congress MLA blamed the snack, saying one of the girls fell sick after eating Kurkure and others had fallen suit, denying it was food poisoning.

Meanwhile, BRS leaders including former MLA Chittem Rammohan Reddy were detained by the police early morning to prevent them from staging protests. In Magnoor too there was heavy deployment of police personnel to prevent any demonstration from taking place. The BRS has also announced a programme, Gurukula Bata, to assess the condition of government schools, hostels, and colleges.

BJP leader and Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Wednesday slammed both the BRS and Congress saying the schools had suffered under the previous BRS regime and nothing changed after Congress came to power.