Karwar: Students fall sick, twelve admitted to ICU after eating mid-day meal at Govt School
Parents allege food contained rat droppings
Karwar: More than 22 students of the Government Model School in Mundgod taluk fell ill on Saturday after consuming the midday meal served on the campus. According to reports from the area, the students complained of severe stomach pain and vomiting shortly after eating the meal.
A total of around 400 students had reportedly consumed the food. Twenty-two of them were taken to hospital for treatment. Hospital authorities confirmed that 12 students were admitted to the ICU, while the remaining ten were discharged after receiving medical care.
Parents alleged that the food items supplied under the Akshara Dasoha scheme were of poor quality. They claimed that sacks of rice and other ingredients used in the midday meal often contained garbage, dust, dirt and even rat droppings. Parents also said they found droppings in the food served on Saturday and questioned the staff, but did not receive a clear response.
According to the parents, storage rooms where the food grains are kept resemble unhygienic godowns. They said the head teacher has the authority to reject substandard supplies but the option is not being exercised. Parents further alleged that they had raised these concerns with officials, including the block education officer, yet no corrective action had been taken.
They also said similar conditions prevail in some government and Urdu schools in Ashraya Nagara and Gudnapur Colony in nearby Haliyala town.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
