With seventy children plagued by encephalitis dying over the past week in Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College due to an alleged shortage of oxygen supply, the Uttar Pradesh government has not been forthcoming to questions, though many remain.
“They don’t tell us where our children are, they don’t tell us anything,” said a parent whose child has been admitted for the past eight days.
Yesterday, the principal of BRD Hospital resigned after being suspended with "immediate effect" even as the Uttar Pradesh government faced all-round flak for the death of 30 infants in the state-run hospital within a span of 48 hours since August 10.
The matter came to national attention after 23 children died on Thursday, a day after CM Adityanath visited the hospital.
UP Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon said Rajiv Mishra was suspended for his "irresponsible act" of allegedly delaying payment to the supplier of oxygen cylinders.
He said a probe, led by the state chief secretary, had been ordered.
Health Minister Singh had said that according to reports from the paediatric department of the college, 60 children died due to various diseases since August 7.
Though the district magistrate had not given any reason for the deaths, an official in Delhi, who did not want to be identified, had said according to the Gorakhpur superintendent of police (SP), 21 children died due to a shortage of oxygen supply.
The state authorities went into a damage control mode after the opposition parties went hammer and tongs against the Yogi Adityanath government, terming the death of the infants as an outcome of the government's "gross criminal negligence".
However, several questions remain unanswered:
· 23 deaths took place on Thursday. The state government admitted that oxygen supply was short and ran out for two hours that night. Were there no deaths due to the lack of oxygen, as the government says?
· How and where from did they get the oxygen supply restored at 1:30 a.m. on Friday?
· Since encephalitis does plague UP (as Adityanath has himself acknowledged multiple times) at this time of the year, why were payments to the tune of Rs 68 lakh unpaid?
· A reported seven warnings were sent to the hospital over seven months, the hospital saying it would cut supply. Again, if encephalitis is a recurring problem why was there an oxygen shortage coupled with unpaid bills for over half a year?
· If reason for the hospital principal being suspended (later to resign) is the "irresponsible act" of delaying payments, and it being the only responsibility that anyone has taken for the tragedy, should we not read into it?
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has blamed lack of sanitation in Gorakhpur for recurring encephalitis cases. But shouldn’t Yogi, the 5-time lawmaker from Gorakhpur, be the last person to complain about it?
With Agency Inputs
