In a shocking incident, around 30 children died in BRD hospital, Gorakhpur, in the past 48 hours due to encephalitis. The oxygen supply to hospital was allegedly cut off because of non-payment of over Rs 60 lakh to the supplying firm. However, the Uttar Pradesh government confirmed that the deaths were due to medical reasons and not non-availability of oxygen.
The incident becomes more grave because Gorakhpur was the parliamentary constituency of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and he had recently visited there.
Because of non-supply of oxygen, this grave incident has taken place.
The deaths have been confirmed by the district magistrate of Gorkhpur, Rajeev Rautela. These deaths have taken place in the past 48 hours.
Meanwhile the Health Minister of Uttar Pradesh Siddarth Nath Singh dismissed the allegations that the deaths took place as the supply of oxygen was disrupted and added that a correct picture will emerge after the inquiry.
The government ordered a high-level magisterial inquiry into the tragic deaths of the children. These 30 children died in the past 48 hours.
Interestingly, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had launched a campaign to eradicate the deadly encephalitis disease in 38 districts of the state affected by this deadly disease in May this year.
Japanese Encephalitis (JE) has been a grave problem for eastern UP districts. In the past 40 years, it has consumed the lives of 40,000 children.
Meanwhile, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav held the present government responsible for the incident and has demanded Rs 20 lakh as compensation for each victim.
The director general of medical education, Dr K.K. Gupta turned down allegations of these deaths because of non-supply of oxygen.
