50 Gujarat police cadets hospitalised after food poisoning

Fifty cadets of the Gujarat State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) were on Friday admitted to the Maharaja Sayajirao Civil Hospital in Vadodara after a serious bout of food poisoning over the last two days.

Of the 50 police cadets, eight were stated to be in critical condition.

Official sources here said 250 cadets were undergoing training at the Lalbaug premises of the SRPF and of them 50 suffered from severe vomiting and diarrhoea after consuming food served to them at the training camp.

The cadets said they had been complaining to the authorities about poor quality of food at their training camp besides pathetic living conditions but to no avail.

Requesting anonymity, the cadets alleged that the food being served to them was often stale and would smell.

"My colleagues have taken ill only because of this," a cadet said.

"We have been training for over two months. Besides food, even the water is bad. Though we have complained about it to our seniors, they said they could not do much since the policy to engage private food contractors was of the state government," a cadet, who was taking care of his colleagues at the hospital, said.

The cadets claimed that they had to consume the food served at the mess since they were not allowed to move out of the camp. "It would have been better if the food is served by our staff at the SRP camp," another cadet said.

--IANS

desai/lok/dg