Gorakhpur deaths: Cong attacks Yogi govt

The Congress on Saturday lashed out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the death of 60 children due to shortage of oxygen in his home town Gorakhpur.

Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Raj Babbar, Pramod Tiwari, Sanjay Singh and RPN Singh air-dashed to Gorakhpur on Saturday to visit the BRD Medical College Hospital where the heart-wrenching tragedy took place over the past four days.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi had expressed deep shock at the death of the children. Rahul held the BJP government in the state responsible for the tragedy and demanded action against the negligent officials.

Briefing reporters upon his return from Gorakhpur, Azad demanded immediate dismissal of Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh and an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the tragedy.

“The kids died because of the negligence of the government. What is unfortunate is that the tragedy happened two days after the chief minister’s visit to the hospital,” the Congress leader said demanding a public apology from the chief minister.

He dubbed the suspension of the principal of the medical college as an “eyewash”.

“The chief minister does not know what is happening in his own home, what is happening with the kids in his home town,” Azad said noting that the local media had been reporting about shortage of liquid oxygen for the past fortnight.

Azad said the hospital was expanded during the UPA regime and he had visited the facility at least thrice during his tenure as Union health minister.

He rejected the UP government’s contention that the deaths were due to diseases such as Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis which are prevalent in the region.

“I spoke to everyone from the clerks, peons to top officials. Everybody said shortage of liquid oxygen led to the tragedy,” Azad said.