Congress hits back at Adityanath's 'picnic spot' remark

The Congress on Saturday lashed out at Yogi Adityanath over his statement that Gorakhpur should not be allowed to be made a 'picnic spot', citing that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister should be careful with his words.

Speaking to ANI, Congress leader Girija Vyas said, "Such language or statement should not be used for Rahul Gandhi. His visit is a genuine one and comes out of concern. Nothing can be more unfortunate than this ruthless statement over the Congress. Our party has always been sensitive and will continue to be. Adityanath should be careful with his words or else should take them back."

Resonating similar views, another grand old party leader Shobha Oza stated that even after Adityanath is making such assertions just to hide his wrongdoings.

"Yogi Adityanath is making such statements just to hide his wrongdoings and cover up on all the dirty politics that the saffron party is into. He was in the hospital for more than 2.5 hours. Should I ask him what was he doing for so long? Also despite staying there, can he give a report on all the development and improvement that has taken place? So far, the BJP government has not done anything on this matter," he said.

This statement comes after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, earlier in the day, launched a scathing attack on the Opposition, saying that it should not be allowed to make the tragedy-struck place a 'picnic spot'.

"The 'shehzaada' sitting in Lucknow and the 'yuvraj' sitting in Delhi don't know the importance of cleanliness. We must not allow them to make Gorakhpur a picnic spot," Chief Minister Yogi said, while addressing a public rally in Gorakhpur's Andhiyari Bagh locality, ahead of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's visit to the city.

Adityanath also targetted an attack on the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for ruining institutions in Uttar Pradesh for selfish motives.

"The governments in last 12-15 years ruined the institutions in UP for selfish motives by institutionalising corruption and kept people deprived of facilities," he stated.

The Chief Minister launched a 'Swachh Uttar Pradesh, Swasth Uttar Pradesh' campaign and broomed a street in Gorakhpur clean.

He also appealed the public to maintain cleanliness in their locality to fight encephalitis.

"I started the movement against Encephalitis, at least 20 years back. Prevention is better than cure and it starts with sanitation. The common people have to involve themselve in the cleanliness drive. We will start the abhiyan from Gorakhpur itself," he added.

Yesterday, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav demanded a high level Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the death of at least 30 kids died in 48 hours at Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College's Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur.

Addressing the media here, Yadav accused the Yogi Adityanath-led government of being hand-in-gloves with the CBI.

The former chief minister also said that people of Uttar Pradesh have understood the reality of the party and would not be fooled by BJP's false promises.

Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court has pulled up the Uttar Pradesh Government and has asked to specify the cause of deaths of multitudes of children that took place in Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College.

-ANI