Contractor held in food poisoning case

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

A top level probe is being conducted by a special police team following food poisoning where a student died and several others were hospitalised in the Matale area.

The contractor who supplied mid day meals to several schools in the Palapathwela in the Matale area has been taken in for questioning by the Mahaveli police in this connection. A schoolgirl died and 129 students fell victims after consuming the meal. The suspect was due to be produced before the Matale Magistrate yesterday evening.Meanwhile SSP, Matale, Tilak Abeysiriwardena when contacted by the Sunday Observer said that they were awaiting a report from the Government Analyst to take further action.

"We must identify the food poison that led to the death of a child and made several other schoolchildren fall ill. The contractor had boiled the noodles and eggs with the shells together. This may have led to some kind of food poisoning," the SSP said.Primary schoolchildren in Buddhagosha and two other schools in Palapathwela fell victims to the food poisoning last Wednesday.

The grade five schoolgirl from Dombewela, Palapathwela who died has been identified as Kaviska Dananjeni. She was a student of Buddhagosha school.