Mid-day meal tragedy: case filed against Nitish; BJP slams his 'conspiracy theory' - Hindustan Times

A local court on Tuesday admitted a complaint case filed against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, state education minister PK Shahi and others in the July 16 mid-day meal tragedy in which 23 children died. File photo of Nitish Kumar. (UNI Photo) The court's decision came even as a political war erupted over the CM's comment that the mid-day meal deaths as well as the serial blasts at Bodh Gaya "have shown that the BJP and the RJD have joined hands. More such incidents can take place." The court of the chief judicial magistrate directed Masrakh police station in Saran, 25 km from Chapra district headquarters, to register an FIR and tag it with another case lodged by Akhilanand Mishra, father of a victim, Ashish. Apart from the CM and Shahi, advocate Shashiranjan Pathak has also named Saran district magistrate and the headmistress of Gandman primary school in his complaint case. India's unique mid-day meal programme covers about 113.6 million children across 1.3 million institutions. Despite offering food security to children, the programme has never been able to fully shake off complaints over the quality of meals and allegations of corruption.   Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tore into the CM for seeing a political conspiracy in the children's deaths, which have been attributed to the presence of banned agriculture insecticide monocrotophos in the mid-day meal served at Gandman primary school. "Nitish Kumar is shamelessly trying to take cover under the conspiracy theory, which certainly is very unfortunate," BJP general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy said. "The fact is that 23 children have died and the chief minister has entered into a blame game. Nowhere in the world has a school campus been converted into a graveyard."   Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad has already lashed out at the ruling Janata Dal (United) for accusing the opposition of trying to destabilise the government.   Addressing party leaders on Monday, the CM had said the BJP, after losing power in Bihar following the breakup of its coalition with JD(U), was fomenting trouble for the government along with the RJD. He had added the shutdowns called by the two parties after the serial blasts and the mid-day meal tragedy confirmed "the secret understanding between them".   He has asked party workers to be prepared for more such incidents that could take place as a part of the opposition's efforts to destabilise the government. (With inputs from Patna, and Agencies) via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNF68u2d0GV9eB9A3PS1lPcPb9CDlA&url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Patna/Bihar-mid-day-meal-tragedy-case-filed-against-Nitish-BJP-slams-his-conspiracy-theory/Article1-1096894.aspx

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