Over 300 women students of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) were taken to a hospital today morning, October 18 as they were showing symptoms of food poisoning, authorities said. They started showing the symptoms after dinner at their hostel the previous night.
Giving more details, the authorities said that by afternoon, almost all of them were discharged from the university's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College. "The girls started coming in early in the morning and we have treated about 300 girls. Once they showed improvement, we discharged them. We are constantly monitoring the health of all the girls," the hospital's chief superintendent, Dr Haaris Manzoor Khan, said. They were residents of the Begum Azeezun Nisa Hall, he added.
Health officials collect samples
The Begum Azeezun Nisa Hall of the AMU is a women's hostel with a capacity of accommodating 1,500 students. As the news of the incident spread, district authorities deployed a team of health officials to take samples of food stored in the hostel's dining area and kitchens.
In this regard, a university official said that the district health officials and food inspectors have collected food samples from the hostel.
AMU officials speak
An AMU spokesperson told PTI that a three-member committee has been set up to investigate the matter. Office bearers of the AMU Teachers' Association (AMUTA) will hold a meeting today evening to discuss the situation.
AMUTA Secretary Obaid Ahmad Siddique told reporters, "Enquiry into this serious matter would only be meaningful if it is time-bound." The second issue which needs to be probed is the ad hoc manner in which, "tenders for food supplies were being cleared in recent months by university authorities," he said.
Siddique claimed that if a high-level probe is carried out, it is, "likely to reveal major irregularities in food material purchase procedures". Further, he also alleged that in the past few months, students staying at other hostels of the university have complained about the quality of food, but such complaints were not addressed.
