Students fall ill after long march for Tiranga Yatra in Madhya Pradesh

Over 200 students from schools such as Sandipani Vidyalaya, Saraswati Vidyalaya and Excellence School set out at 9 a.m. for a Tiranga Yatra in Singrauli district, walking about 6 km to Chitrangi market. They were left waiting roughly an hour for state panchayat and rural development minister Radha Singh to appear, after which they continued a further 1.5 km march. The combination of heat, skipped breakfast and limited refreshments caused twelve children to experience dizziness, weakness and, for one girl with a pre-existing condition, breathing difficulties that required oxygen support.

Teachers hired auto-rickshaws to ferry the sick pupils to a community health centre, where they were treated for exhaustion and released within an hour. The minister attributed the ailments to the intense heat and brisk walking, while the Singrauli collector Gaurav Benal issued show-cause notices to local officials and said the claims linking the incident to the minister's delay were unfounded.