Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi reached Gorakhpur on Saturday to meet the families of the deceased children in the recent incident.
A few days back a tragic incident shook the morals of Uttar Pradesh when more than 63 children died in BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur due to oxygen deficiency. Yogi Adityanath led government suffered reprimand from across the nation with the opposition parties alleging the Yogi government to be careless and irresponsible. Some of them even asked for the resignation of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and UP Health Minister Siddarth Nath Singh on the basis of ethic. Pushpa firm who was responsible to supply oxygen to the hospital said that it owed Rs 69 lakh to the hospital and had hence stopped the supply of the oxygen. While the hospitals deny the allegation of deaths due to oxygen deficiency saying that the children did not die of oxygen deficiency.
To offer sympathy and condolence to the families who suffered the consequences of the tragedy Rahul visited Gorakhpur accompanied by Congress senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. Azad held the Yogi government responsible for the incident and said that Yogi Adityanath represented Gorakhpur in the Lok Sabha five times, despite this, he did nothing to improve the condition of BRD Medical College. Rahul met the families of the victims and assured them of providing all the help possible.
Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath termed Rahul Gandhi’s visit as a ‘picnic’ and said that the ‘Yuvraj’ sitting in Delhi does not care for the people of UP. Adityanath also happened to be in Gorakhpur on Saturday when Rahul came for the visit. Uttar Pradesh CM inaugurated the ‘Clean Uttar Pradesh, Healthy Uttar Pradesh’ campaign here this morning. He started this hygiene campaign with the Andheri Baagh colony of Gorakhpur and said that the main cause of insomnia is the dirt. He began the cleanliness campaign in the district to tackle the deadly encephalitis outbreak in the wake of the death of 71 children at the BRD hospital here. He said that dirt and unhygienic surrounding is the main reason for the spread of encephalitis and one need to clean the city to fight the deadly disease.
He cleaned the area of where the Dalits are settled and asked the people to keep the area clean. He informed the people that encephalitis has taken the form of an epidemic in eastern Uttar Pradesh and everyone will have to unitedly put in efforts and fight the disease to finish it from the very roots. He even blamed the former government for encephalitis and said that the situation in the state has worsened in last 10-15 years. He further defending his government said that “We are committed to serving the people and are constantly trying to run the governance system in the state smoothly.”
Taking a toll on both Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav, Yogi Adityanath said that “I feel that the shehzada sitting in Lucknow ..Yuvraj sitting in Delhi will not know the importance of this cleanliness campaign. They will come here to make it a picnic spot, we cannot permit it.”
The opposition had raised the issue of the death of children in the hospital of Gorakhpur with full thrust. Through this incident, there has been a rage against the Yogi government across the country, which has so far been in discussion due to its historical decisions. Following the incident under the leadership of Congress State party President Rajbabar, the party members had demonstrated protest in huge number by sitting on the roads in Lucknow. After the protest staged by the party workers, Rahul’s visit to Gorakhpur will add political colors to the situation bringing in more criticism for the Yogi-government.