Zee Media Bureau

Patna: Starting a fresh controversy, JD(U) MLA Manjit Singh said on Monday that it should be probed whether the pesticides that were found in the mid-day meal in a Chhapra school that killed 23 children were made in Gujarat.

Talking to the media, Manjit Singh said that the timers that were used in the Bodh Gaya blasts were made in Gujarat. Similarly, he wanted the state government to probe whether the pesticides that were found in the food consumed by school children were also made in Gujarat or not.

Infact, going further Manjit Singh said that ever since the BJP-JD(U) alliance had been broken, there was a war like situation in Bihar, as if two countries were attacking each other.

Earlier, smelling a conspiracy behind the mid-day meal tragedy in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has alleged that BJP and RJD had a "secret understanding" to derive political mileage from the incident.

"The Forensic Science Laboratory, which highlights the presence of pesticide in the midday meal, has confirmed our apprehensions about a conspiracy behind the tragedy at a school in Saran last week", he had told a meeting of party MPs, MLAs and office-bearers as part of Mission 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The CM charged "an understanding between BJP and RJD was very much visible both after Bodh Gaya blasts and Chapra midday meal tragedy" as the two parties had called bandhs on the same after the two incidents, state JD(U) spokesman Rajeev Ranjan quoted him as saying.

"RJD and BJP had called bandh together on both the occasions and this confirms the secret understanding between them", Kumar said.

The Forensic Science Laboratory's (FSL) report in the Bihar’s mid-day meal tragedy stated that high quantity of organo phosphorus pesticide was found in the food items that the children consumed.

“Organo phosphorus has been found in the food, it is normally used in insecticides,” Ravindra Kumar, ADG, Bihar had told reporters.

The Forensic Science Laboratory report found Monocrotophos, an organophosphorous compound in the samples of oil from the container, food remains on the platter and mixture of rice with vegetables on Aluminium tasla (utensil), Additional Director General of Police (HQ) Ravinder Kumar told the media, reporters making the report public. Monocrotophos is used as a pesticide for agricultural purposes, it is very toxic to human beings and other animals, the ADG had said quoting the FSL report.

The report confirmed the Bihar government's apprehension that the food given to the children of Dharmasati Gandaman primary school at Chhapra was poisoned.