Sonia, Rahul Gandhi express pain, shock over children's death in Gorakhpur

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday expressed deep shock at the tragic death of 30 ailing children in the last 48 hours of Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur due to alleged shortage of oxygen.

Pained beyond words by this humongous tragedy, Sonia Gandhi said, "My heart goes out to the families of the innocent children who fell prey to gross negligence and incorrigible misconduct on the part of the authorities."

She urged the Uttar Pradesh government to take immediate cognisance of the crime and bring the culprits to book. She also called upon the state Congress workers to provide relief to the families of victims.

Meanwhile, Rahul took to his Twitter page and said "Deeply pained. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. BJP govt is responsible and should punish the negligent, who caused this tragedy (sic)."

Yesterday, as many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis, which is a sudden onset inflammation of the brain, in a span of 48 hours at the hospital of Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College.
Gorakhpur DM Rajeev Rautela said that the cause of the deaths at the BRD Hospital is the disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen and further appealed to the suppliers to not cut the supply henceforth.

The state government has reportedly asked for a report on this incident within 24 hours.

Further details are awaited.

-ANI