At least eight cadets of the Gujarat State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) are in critical condition at Vadodra's Maharaja Sayajirao Civil Hospital after experiencing bouts of food poisoning. Fifty cadets were admitted to the hospital on Friday. 

Official sources were quoted by the Indo-Asian News Service as saying that nearly 250 cadets were undergoing training at the Lalbaug premises of SRPF. Fifty cadets complained of severe diarrhoea and vomiting after consuming food from the canteen at the training camp.

The cadets told IANS that despite making complaints to the authorities about the poor quality of the food, no corrective measures were taken. They further alleged that the food served to them was stale and would smell.

Since the cadets are not allowed to move out of the training camp, they were compelled to eat from the mess. According to them, even the water quality is bad at the training camp.

"My colleagues have taken ill only because of this," a cadet was quoted by the IANS as saying.

A cadet, who was attending to his colleagues at the hospital, said that the state government has a policy of engaging private food contractors at the training camp, due to which the higher authorities are not letting staff cook their own food.

"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," he added.