Over 100 female students of a residential school in Bihar's Ara town have gone on a hunger strike to protest against the insect-infested food served to them by the school. In the last two weeks, nine girls have fallen ill after eating the contaminated food and have been admitted to Sadar hospital.

The students of Ambedkar Residential Girl High School in Ara then decided to go on a hunger strike to protest against the rotten food.

"After school authorities refused to listen to our to grievances about the insect-infested food, we have taken the Gandhian way of hunger strike to protest against it," said Manju. She is one of the nine students who had to be admitted to the hospital after eating the food served by the school.

Another student Sheela told rediff.com that they began the hunger strike to protest the apathy of the school authorities. "Initially, we protested before the school administration but they hardly paid any attention. They continued to serve the same rotten and insect infested food," she said.

The girls refuse to end their hunger strike unless the district magistrate gives them a written assurance about the matter and action is taken against the school's principal Premila Jha.

"We are fed up with oral assurances, we want real assurance from the DM," say the girls.

After the students' hungerstrike hit the headlines, SDM Nagendra Kumar Singh visited the school on Monday. He checked the rice, pulses being served to the students and found them unfit for consumption.

"I collected a sample of the food stock. It appears to be of very bad quality," he said.