印度學(xué)校食物中毒致23名學(xué)生死亡 校長(zhǎng)夫婦被控謀殺.

　　印度學(xué)校食物中毒致23名學(xué)生死亡 校長(zhǎng)夫婦被控謀殺

　　India school meal deaths: headteacher and husband charged with murder

　　A school headteacher and her husband have been charged with murder after 23 children died from eating pesticide-contaminated lunches in July at the school in eastern India, police said on Tuesday.

　　The trial of Meena Devi and her husband was expected to begin soon, said police officer Varun Kumar Sinha. They were arrested and could face the death penalty if convicted.

　　Investigating police officer Raj Kaushal said the headteacher&aposs husband, politician Arjun Rai, stored pesticide at the school that was for use at his farm. The charge sheet filed in a court in Bihar state on Sunday said the ch cooked with it by mistake.

　　Both denied the charges and told police there was no deliberate act on their part.

　　The school&aposs cooks have told authorities that the headteacher controlled the food for the government-provided free daily lunch. One of the cooks told police investigators that the cooking oil appeared different, but that the principal told her to use it anyway.

　　The children who died were aged between five and 12.

　　India&aposs midday meal plan is one of the world&aposs biggest school nutrition programmes. State governments have the freedom to decide on menus and timings of the meals, depending on local conditions and availability of food rations. It was first introduced in the 1960s in southern India, where it was seen as an incentive for poor parents to send their children to school.

　　Although there have been complaints about the quality of the food served and the lack of hygiene, the incident in Bihar appeared to be unprecedented.

　　警方周二稱，印度東部一所學(xué)校的校長(zhǎng)及其丈夫雙雙被指控謀殺，今年7月該校23名學(xué)生因食用被農(nóng)藥污染的午餐不幸身亡。

　　警官瓦倫?庫馬爾?辛哈稱，米納?德維校長(zhǎng)及其丈夫預(yù)計(jì)很快將面臨審判。他們已經(jīng)被逮捕，如果如果指控罪名成立則可能被判死刑。

　　調(diào)查警官拉杰?考沙爾說，校長(zhǎng)的丈夫阿爾瓊?拉伊是一名政客，是他把自己農(nóng)場(chǎng)要用的農(nóng)藥儲(chǔ)放在了學(xué)校。上周日在比哈爾邦法庭提交的控告書上指出，廚師在給學(xué)生做午餐過程中誤用了此農(nóng)藥。

　　夫妻二人雙雙否認(rèn)這些指控，并告訴警方此事故絕非二人刻意為之。

　　然而，學(xué)校廚師已經(jīng)告訴當(dāng)局，對(duì)于政府發(fā)放的學(xué)生免費(fèi)午餐，校長(zhǎng)曾一度限制其食物供應(yīng)量。其中一位還告訴偵查員說，校長(zhǎng)曾硬要她使用明顯已變了色的食用油。

　　事故中死亡兒童的年齡在5—12歲之間。

　　印度的免費(fèi)午餐計(jì)劃是世界上最大的校園營(yíng)養(yǎng)計(jì)劃之一。各個(gè)邦政府根據(jù)當(dāng)?shù)貤l件以及食物配額自由支配午餐的菜單和時(shí)序。此計(jì)劃于20世紀(jì)60年代開始率先在印度南部實(shí)行，一度被看做是政府鼓勵(lì)貧困家庭送子女上學(xué)的一項(xiàng)激勵(lì)政策。

　　雖然此前有關(guān)免費(fèi)午餐質(zhì)量以及食品衛(wèi)生的投訴并不少見，但此次比哈爾邦事件的嚴(yán)重程度似乎是前所未有的。