At least 15 employees, including technical staff and a few drivers and conductors of the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) were admitted in the Salem Government Medical College Hospital when they complained of severe stomach pain, vomiting, nausea and head ache after taking meals in the canteen in the depot here

A few of them also swooned.

Highly placed sources in the SETC told The Hindu that the group of workers, including a few administrative staff and ground supportive technical workers, took the meals served in the canteen run by the Corporation itself at the Manakkadu depot here on Thursday afternoon.

After 15 minutes one by one had started developing nausea and vomiting. A few also swooned following which panicked senior officers rushed them to the Government hospital in a bus where they were admitted as in-patients.

The canteen according to employees would provide them only lunch at a subsidized cost.

Nearly 100 employees a majority of them technical staff used to take the meals in the noon since the shift also would begin.

A senior officials of the depot claimed that all the 58 long distance services would be operated today without any hitch.

No danger
A senior doctor on duty said that the employees were admitted for suspected food poisoning and were ‘out of danger.’ “We will keep them under observation for 24 hours before discharging them,” she said.

CITU’s Salem district secretary S. K. Thiagarajan demanded an inquiry into the incident.