Overview
- Clusters of suspected food poisoning struck state-run hostels on Thursday, with reports of about 26–40 students falling ill after khichdi at a tribal residential school in Mannanur and roughly 11 at an Ambedkar hostel and 45–50 at the Morarji Desai hostel in Karnataka after dinner.
- District health teams rushed affected children to local hospitals, many were treated and discharged and most remaining cases are stable, but some facilities were briefly stretched and parents staged protests at one Telangana site.
- Food safety inspectors have collected food and water samples for laboratory analysis and the Telangana Human Rights Commission has ordered a detailed report from the Nagarkurnool collector.
- Karnataka authorities suspended the principal and warden at the Kalaburagi hostel and moved to terminate outsourced kitchen staff after preliminary findings pointed to undercooked rice as a likely cause of widespread indigestion.
- The incidents revive earlier National Human Rights Commission concerns about hundreds of suspected poisoning events in Telangana gurukuls and are likely to prompt broader inspections of kitchen management, outsourcing contracts and tanker water supplies as inquiries continue.