The abject apathy with which the government manages facilities for students across the country doesn’t fail to surprise. On Sunday, the students of the Sant Eknath Boys Government Hostel in Chembur run by the Social welfare Department, found a lizard in their afternoon meal.

Thankfully, one student raised the alarm before the contaminated meal could cause harm to other students. In a similar case at another hostel four years ago, students suffered food poisoning after eating food that had been contaminated with a dead lizard. What was worse was that for the Sant Eknath hostelites, this was déjà vu. Glass shards in noodles and pieces of plastic in chapatis have been found before, they said.