PATNA, Aug. 20 -- The Nalanda district administration on Wednesday served show cause notice to several officials including the district programme officer of mid-day meal scheme as well as put the headmaster of middle school Parasi under suspension after over three dozen students of the school had fallen ill on Tuesday by consuming mid-day meal, which was apparently laced with detergent. Three cooks who had prepared the meal have been dismissed from service, said district education officer, Nalanda Hem Raj. He is among the four member team constituted to probe the incident of contaminated mid-day meal served to students of the Parasi middle school. "In our initial probe, it has come out the cooks were responsible for the lapse and had added detergent in the food by mistaking it as salt. All the three cooks have been dismissed and the headmaster of the middle school Shailendra Kumar has been put under suspension," Raj said. A four member probe team comprising SDO, Biharsharief, SDPO Biharsharief , district education officer and head of Noorsarai Primary Health Centre( PHC) is probing the incident and is likely to submit the report in next three days to the DM, Nalanda, Udita Singh, officials said. Reports said some students had already eaten when others complained that the food lacked salt. The containers of salt and detergent powder had reportedly been kept at the same place in the kitchen, and the cook allegedly mistook the detergent for salt and added it to the food, locals claimed. " The block education officer , Noorsarai has been asked to lodge an FIR regarding the incident," the DEO, Nalanda said. On Tuesday, over three dozen children of the middle school, Parasi under Noorsarai police station had taken ill after consuming the mid-day meal complaining of dizziness and started vomitting. The children were rushed to the Sadar hospital where they underwent treatment before being discharged today, officials said. " It is a major lapse and we have already showcaused officials associated with monitoring of the mid-day meal in the block and district level. Action would be taken once the probe committee report comes," said a senior official in the state education department, who is in know of the matter. In last few months, several instances of students having complained of detecting insects and foreign material in mid-day meal have surfaced from different parts of the state. In May, this year, over 100 school children in a middle school at Mahisi block in Saharsa district had fallen ill by eating contaminated mid-day meal. There were allegations that children had found a dead snake in the food. A probe was done and officials did find the food contaminated, sources said. "We regularly issue instructions to school authorities and DMs for maintaining proper hygiene and cleaniness in preparation of mid-day meals to be served to students in middle schools. But these lapses keep on occurring," said another senior official in the state education department, handling the mid-day meal. He said the NGOs were given charge of prepararing and monitoring the mid-day meals so that teachers are not engaged in cooking work. The mid-day meal at Parasi middle school is under a NGO, officials said. Meanwhile, in another related incident, students of the Bhimrao Ambedkar Residential School comprising around 450 students had taken to hunger strike in protest against the poor facilities and mismanagement at the institution on August 17. During the inspection, the officials found several lapses. The students complained that they were not being served food according to the prescribed menu and that the quality of the food was poor. Problems related to cleanliness, broken taps, a non-functional RO water purifier and internet connectivity have also been found. East Champaran district administration has ordered the discontinuation of services of Jeevika workers engaged in preparing and serving meals to students and withheld the salary of games teacher at the Bhimrao Ambedkar Residential School in Sugaon under Sugauli block, officials said. Referring to a report to be submitted to district magistrate (DM) Suman Saurabh Yadav, Motihari (sadar) sub divisional magistrate (SDM) Arun Kumar said during an on-spot investigation, several lapses came to the fore in Bhimrao Ambedkar Residential School which led to a huge dissatisfaction among the students....