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UP CM visits Gorakhpur hospital, Congress demands SC-monitored probe into 'massacre'
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SME Times News Bureau | 14 Aug, 2017
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday visited the Baba
Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur where over 60
children died in five days and said anyone found guilty of negligence
would not be spared.
However, rubbishing Adityanath's claim that
the deaths occurred due to vector-borne diseases, the Congress termed
them as "murders" and "massacre" and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored
probe into the incident.
Visiting the government-run hospital,
which falls in his parliamentary constituency Gorakhpur, which he has
been representing for two decades, along with Union Health Minister J.P.
Nadda, Adityanath said the government was waiting for a report of the
probe committee.
"I have formed a high level Committee under the
supervision of the Chief Secretary and a thorough probe has been ordered
to check the cause of the deaths in the NICU (neonatal intensive care
unit) and the supply of oxygen.
"Let the report of the Committee
come... I want to assure you all that not only in Gorakhpur but in any
government hospital if there has been any lapse then we will take strict
action after the BRD hospital tragedy," he said.
The Chief Minister also accused the opposition parties of politicising the issue.
"Those whose sensitivity has died are now trying to rub salt on the wounds by raising this issue unnecessarily," he said.
The Congress however charged the Adityanath government of a "cover-up" in an attempt to bury the truth.
"According
to evidence that have emerged till now, and looking at the comments of
the officials and the kin of the victims, the unusually high number of
deaths occurred due to neglect and mismanagement, and not due to any
disease as being claimed by the BJP government in the state," Congress
spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill told reporters at a press conference in
New Delhi.
"It has been proved that it was not just a tragedy but
it was a murder and massacre...We demand an independent probe under the
supervision of a Supreme Court judge," he said, terming the Chief
Minister, the state Health Minister, and the BRD Medical College's
Principal "all responsible for the deaths" of the children.
The
UP government has denied the deaths took place due to lack of liquid
oxygen in the hospital, but Adityanath has insisted that the deaths
occurred due to encephalitis and other reasons.
He and Health
Minister Siddharth Nath Singh had contended on Saturday that there has
been no death due to lack of oxygen supply, but did concede there was a
problem in supply of liquid oxygen for four hours on August 10 which was
made up by the system switching to cylinders.
On Sunday,
Adityanath also sought the Central government's help to set up a
virology research centre in eastern UP to fight vector-borne diseases
like encephalitis, which claim several lives each year.
"The
atmosphere of eastern Uttar Pradesh is such that there are many
vector-borne diseases like encephalitis. To stop the diseases we need to
have a full-fledged virology research centre," Adityanath said.
Nadda
meanwhile announced that the Centre has approved Rs 85 crore for
setting up a central virology research centre in Gorakhpur.
Union
Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Union Health Secretary
C.K. Mishra visited the hospital on Saturday to look into the lapses in
the BRD Medical College.
Principal of the medical college R.K. Mishra was suspended for alleged negligence and callousness.
But
the Congress mocked the actions and the probe. "How can an accused
probe allegations against himself?" asked Shergill, who also questioned
why autopsies were not carried out on the children who died in the
hospital. "How can the government claim that deaths happened due to any
disease without carrying out autopsies or any probe?"
Shergill
also sought to know why no case had been registered against the hospital
officials and "why has not the Health Minister been sacked yet?"
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