Gorakhpur tragedy: Uttar Pradesh Congress terms incident as 'murder,' demands Yogi Adityanath's resignation

Lucknow: The UP Congress Sunday termed the large number of infant deaths in a Gorakhpur hospital “murder” and demanded Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s resignation, saying if he was unable to handle an institution, how will he run the state. “70 children were murdered in the last four days (since 10 August). The state government is responsible for their murder. This government is a killer and I want to ask how many more children will be killed,” Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Raj Babbar told reporters here. [caption id=“attachment_3925497” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A scene from inside the hospital. PTI[/caption] “When a chief minister is unable to handle a medical college in his home district, how would he run the state? He should immediately resign from his post,” he told a press conference here while attacking Yogi Adityanath. Demanding a compensation of Rs 1 crore each for the victim’s parents, he said a case of murder should be lodged against those who are guilty. Babbar said the Congress would run a state-wide campaign on the issue but did not disclose the date when it would start. He hailed the media for the “unbiased reporting” on the issue and said, “Who will decide it was death or murder? The entire focus of the government is on cow-slaughter, singing of Vande Mataram, where the flag is being hoisted on August 15”. The Congress leader said that under the UPA government, Rs 150 crore was given to the BRD medical college hospital and a 100-bed ward was also constructed. “The chief minister had visited the hospital, but he was not aware about the oxygen crisis. The CM has constituted a probe committee but the government has already said that deaths were not due to shortage of oxygen. Then why a probe?” the UPCC president said. He also slammed state Health minister Sidharth Nath Singh for terming deaths in August as “routine”. Referring to the statement of a BJP MP that the incident was “massacre”, Babbar said, “A case of murder should be lodged against the government and those associated with it”.