Bihar horror: Congress rubbishes conspiracy theory in midday meal deaths

New Delhi: Congress on Thursday disapproved of Bihar government’s conspiracy theory into the mid-day meal tragedy and reminded states of their responsibilities as more such cases came to light. “We are not trying to cover up any state… We are not being soft on anyone… We are just waiting for the probe report. It’s not good that people are making statements. Now even the state governments are making statements, their authentic representatives are making statements. [caption id=“attachment_967831” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A girl being treated in a hospital in Bihar. PTI[/caption] “This is not proper. Making such statements will hurt the family members of children, who died in the incident,” party spokesperson Raj Babbar told reporters here. His remarks came a day after Bihar Education Minister P K Shahi said in Patna that the deaths were not due to food poisoning but it’s a clear case of mixing poison in food, suspecting a conspiracy behind the tragedy. Babbar also made it clear that though the mid-day meal is a central scheme, the responsibility for implementing it lies with the states. To a question that whether it was not improper that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was yet to visit the village, Babbar said, “This is not good. This is indeed the responsibility if such an incident happens in any district. I do not know why he did it (did not visit) but this should not happen.” More cases of children falling ill after consuming free food or contaminated water have come to light from Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Delhi and Maharasthra after the mid-day meal tragedy in Bihar that led to the death of 23 children in Chhapra. Babbar as well as other Congress leaders had yesterday refrained from making any attack on Kumar or his government. Kumar’s party JD-U recently broke away from NDA amid speculation of its inching closer to Congress. PTI