Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday ruled out a shortage of oxygen as the reason for the deaths in Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital as he stressed no one found guilty would be spared.
He also requested the media to be responsible and only broadcast authentic death statistics. “We are sensitive to each death in the hospital and will request you all to be careful about the facts and figures,” he said at a press conference here.
Expressing his sympathies to the families who have lost their children, Mr. Adityanath said that encephalitis was a big challenge for the State government, adding that the prevalence of the disease had been an emotional issue for him as he had been waging a war against this since 1998.
Monitoring situation
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to him, enquired about the situation and assured all help from the Central government. The Union Health Secretary was in Gorakhpur along with State government officials, he said, adding that Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda and Minister of State Anupriya Patel were monitoring the situation as well.
Mr. Adityanath also said that during his review meeting in Gorakhpur on August 9, he had asked officials if there were any issues they were facing or any help they required from the government but was told that there were none.
The Chief Minister said that he himself had visited the BRD medical college on July 9 and August 9 to himself look at the situation but was not informed of any shortage of any facility, including oxygen.
State Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh attributed the deaths of children to some underweight, early delivery, sepsis, pneumonia and other infections. A few deaths, he added, were due to encephalitis as well.