agencies
Gorakhpur/Bangalore, August 14: Six more children have died from encephalitis since Saturday at state-run BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur where the death of nearly 70 of them, including infants, has set off a nation-wide outrage and political recrimination.
Many of these deaths were alleged to have been caused by shortage of oxygen, a claim dismissed by the government. Even as the authorities grappled with the situation in the aftermath of the tragedy which continued to unfold, additional director health Pushkar Anand Monday said these fresh deaths occurred between August 12 and 14.
“In the past three days — from August 12 to August 14 — six encephalitis patients, mostly children have died. In the same period, as many as 21 patients were admitted for treatment. At present nearly 75 encephalitis patients are undergoing treatment in the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital,” he said.
In state capital Lucknow, UP Congress leaders including state party chief Raj Babbar staged a protest over the tragedy and many of them courted arrest. The Congress has been demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and registration of a case of “murder” over the “massacre” of children.
BJP chief Amit Shah, who is in Bangalore, rejected the demand for Adityanath’s ouster, saying such incidents had also happened in states governed by the Congress. “It is natural for Congress to ask for Yogiji’s resignation. This is not the first time such an incident has taken place in this large country of ours. Such incidents have taken place during Congress rule in many states,” he told reporters.
Replying to a query, Shah said unlike the Congress, BJP “does not hold anybody guilty” without investigation, which was on. When asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who often takes to microblogging website twitter to express his views, has not tweeted about the Gorakhpur tragedy yet, Shah said he has already voiced his grief over the deaths. “Twitter is not the only medium to convey a message,” he said. Congress, meanwhile claimed it had warned the government about the resource crunch at the hospital.
| SC refuses to take cognisance New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday refused to take cognisance of the recent deaths of children at a government hospital at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. The bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud asked the lawyer, who mentioned the issue before it, to approach the Allahabad High Court with his grievances. The lawyer has also sought an SIT probe into the deaths of children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRD) hospital in Gorakhpur. The court observed that the authorities were handling the situation and the grievances, if any, have to be raised before the high court concerned. |