YOGI SHOULD APOLOGISE TO NATION: CONG
GORAKHPUR: Holding the state government responsible for the deaths at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday said UP CM Yogi Adityanath should take moral responsibility of the incident and apologise to the nation. Azad also demanded the resignation of UP health minister, principal secretary, health, and secretary, medical education. After the death of 30 patients at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College on Friday, a delegation of Congress leaders led by Azad and UP Congress president Raj Babbar visited Gorakhpur. “We hold the state government responsible for this tragedy. This is the parliamentary constituency of chief minister Yogi Adityanath who had even visited the medical college a day before the tragedy. Being the local law maker and the CM, he should apologise to the nation,” Azad said. “The health minister, principal secretary (health) and secretary, medical education, have no right to stay on their posts,” said Azad while talking to media persons. He said the magisterial probe ordered by the UP government was not enough and a joint committee of MPs from all parties should be constituted to ensure an unbiased probe into the incident. He said the local media had been cautioning the government by publishing reports on disruption in oxygen supply but the authorities did not take it seriously. Azad, who served as the union health minister in the previous UPA regime at the Centre, said: “Our government did maximum work to check deaths due to encephalitis. A budget of Rs 150 crore was allocated for super-speciality ward and Rs 125 crore for 100-bed encephlitis wards and NIV lab. An amount of Rs 450 crore was sanctioned for providing potable drinking water to check spread of water-borne diseases.” It was reported on Friday that as many as 30 children lost their lives in a span of 48 hours allegedly due to disruption in oxygen supply to the hospital.