Over 60 children in Batakwada Tad primary school in Santrampur taluka of Panchmahals region suffered from food poisoning after drinking milk provided to them under Gujarat government’s “Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana” on Tuesday.

Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana is a recently-launched tribal welfare programme.

The students started vomiting within minutes of consuming specially packed flavoured milk.

When some school teachers checked the pouches, they found insects in the milk pouches of ‘Doodh Sanjivani’.

The teachers, at once, called up the senior government and health functionaries, and ambulances from Fatehpura, Sukhsar and Santrampur were rushed to the school.

The students were taken to a local hospital for primary treatment, and then shifted to a government hospital in Santrampur taluka headquarters.

The officials of the District Education Office said that 72 out of the 97 students were present on Tuesday. The 11 students, who did not fall ill, had not consumed the milk.

Dr. S L Acharya, the superintendent of Santrampur Government Hospital, told, “The condition of the children is improving, but they will be kept under observation for the next 24 hours. The intake of stale and contaminated milk was the reason behind the food poisoning.”

Prakash Vaghela, Panchmahals Chief District Health Officer, said that a group of doctors has been sent to the village.

“We have asked the doctors to remain on the alert for any emergency at night. We are keeping a check on the students of other schools. If more such cases come up in the village, action will be taken against the milk provider,” Vaghela added.

As part of the government’s project, the milk has been supplied by the Panchmahals District Cooperative Milk Producers to government-run schools.

Bhupendra Solanki, Godhra MP and chairman of Panchmahals Dairy Co-operative Union, said, “Our job is to send the milk there. We pack the milk when it is chilled. The complaint has come only from one school. The affected school must have kept the milk for some days, and so only those children fell ill.”

When inquired why the expiry date was not printed on the milk pouches, Solanki answered, “The milk has to be consumed on the same day itself. So, there is no reason for mentioning the expiry date.”

Opposing to this, Mr. R D Vankar, Panchmahals District Education Officer told that the milk pouches had expiry dates printed on them.

“We are trying to ascertain as to whether the milk was stale. It is clear that there was something wrong with the milk itself since those 11 children who did not consume it are fine. We are waiting for the laboratory results, which will give a more clear picture. Accordingly, we will find out the loopholes in the system,” Vankar added.

Officials from food and drugs department have also collected milk samples from the school to check its quality.