At least 35 students fell sick after they allegedly found a "lizard" in their breakfast at a government girls' hostel Telangana's Medak district on Tuesday.
The District Educational Officer (DEO) said that the affected students belonged to Ramayampet's TG Model School, adding that they experienced diarrhea and vomiting after consuming the breakfast.
Show cause notices were served to the the Special Officer and caretaker of the hostel, while a cook and an assistant cook have been terminated for their alleged negligence.
Officials said that 17 of the affected students had been taken to a primary health centre (PHC) in Ramayampet mandal, while two among them with stomach pain were shifted to another hospital.
The remaining 15 have been discharged from the PHC now, they added. Notably, the DEO dismissed reports of students falling sick due to food poisoning.
In a report submitted to higher officials including the District Collector, the DEO said that one of the students noticed a 'lizard' in the upma that was served to them for breakfast.
Soon after, the caretaker had told the students to stop eating and took 17 of those who had consumed the upma to the Ramayampet PHC. Later, as many as 70 students were taken to the health centre for a checkup.
All the students were checked and kept under observation for six hours by the doctors, to check for symptoms like loose motions, vomiting, high fever which would indicate food poisoning. The DEO's report, however, said that no such symptoms were found.
"Except two students who were suffering with stomach pain, all the remaining 15 students were discharged from the hospital. Both the students have been shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital in Medak," the DEO said in the report.
Meanwhile, a video purportedly showing a rat running through a cooked food container at the hostel canteen of a government Engineering College in the Sangareddy district went viral on social media.
Later, an official from the district told reporters that they visited the institute for inspecting the matter and were verifying the facts in the case.
(With PTI inputs)
