Infants' deaths: Expert team to visit Kota hospital on Friday; political blame game on

Over 100 children died in JK Lon hospital in the past one month

A mother waits for treatment of her child at the JK Lone hospital in Kota | PTI A mother waits for treatment of her child at the JK Lone hospital in Kota | PTI

An expert team of top paediatricians will visit a government hospital at Kota in Rajasthan on Friday in the wake of a spate of deaths of newborns. The team, which includes experts from AIIMS Jodhpur and health economists, will assess the infrastructural gaps and measures to be taken to prevent further deaths.

Over 100 children died in JK Lon hospital in the past one month.

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan tweeted that had spoken to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and assured all possible assistance to the state government.

In another tweet, Vardhan said Rs 91.7 lakhs has already been advanced to JK Loan Hospital during 2019-20 under the National Health Mission. “Kota District alone has an annual allocation of Rs 27.45 crore for 2019-20, from the annual budgeted amount of Rs 1788.97 crore for Rajasthan,” he said.

According to Union health ministry officials, a preliminary probe has suggested that over 70 per cent of important equipment, including infusion pumps, warmers, oxymeters, nebulisers, meant for newborns, were not in a working condition at the JK Lon hospital and there was a paucity of staff in the paediatrics department.

Besides, a committee constituted by the Rajasthan government has stated that the deaths were taking place due to a lack of oxygen pipelines in the hospital and also because of extreme cold conditions.

Politics over infants' deaths

Meanwhile, a political blame game began over the deaths of infants with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath attacking Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party leader Priyanka Gandhi over the issue.

"It is extremely sad that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, despite being women, are not able to understand the sorrow of the mothers," he said.

Earlier in the day, BSP supremo Mayawati said if Priyanka Gandhi does not meet the children's mothers, then her meeting with the kin of the victims of violence during the anti-CAA protests in UP will be "construed as pure theatrics".

Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi sought an explanation from Gehlot over the infants' deaths.  According to reports, she summoned party in-charge in the state Avinash Pande and sought to know why no steps were taken even as there had been an alarming increase in the number of infant deaths in December.

On Wednesday, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma hit out at the Prime Minister Office, saying the PMO was doing politics over the deaths of infants.

"BJP's politics over death of children in Kota is directed by PMO, as they don't have anything else to cover over up the protests over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)," Sharma had said.

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