The Congress on 4 September rebuked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in connection with the Farrukhabad tragedy where 49 children died in a month, due to insufficient oxygen supply, asserting that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has turned the whole Uttar Pradesh into 'rogi' (ailing) and the saffron party is still not paying any heed to it.
The president of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, Raj Babbar, appealing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "You hail from Uttar Pradesh and it is your direct responsibility. The Chief Minister is incapable of governing the state and he should be replaced very soon. And if you do not take this step, then maybe you are insensitive towards newborns as they are not 'voters'."
"Even after this tragedy, the Chief Minister is sitting in Mathura to attend a RSS function. He takes an airplane to visit his admitted friend, but can't spare time for the people going through this pain," Babbar said, taking a dig at Adityanath.
Another Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Adityanath has turned the whole state into 'rogi' (ailing) and the BJP has remained ignorant all this while. Another bone-chilling incident of death of 49 children in Farrukhabad has now come into light. It shakes one's soul and our heart reaches out to the parents who have lost their new born babies."
"Is this the manner, we are going to treat the future of this country. It could be a 'mere statistics' for the BJP Government, but please go and ask those who have lost their new born babies," he said.
"When will Modi ji wake up? And when will responsibility of Chief Ministers and Health Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and also of Rajasthan and Jharkhand be determined?" said Surjewala.
At least 49 children have died in a period of one month at a hospital in Farrukhabad's Ram Manohar Lohia Rajkiya Chikitsalaya in 30 days allegedly due to oxygen and medicine shortage.
A first information report (FIR) was registered against the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS) of a government-run hospital in Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh, after this.
Prior to this, Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College had grabbed headlines after more than 70 children, mostly infants, died at the hospital within the span of a week, and another 70 in four days, reportedly due to encephalitis and lack of oxygen.
-ANI