The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday demanded that murder charges be pressed against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Health Minister and top government officials for the death of over 60 patients, including at least 30 infants, in Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College Hospital over the past week.
Releasing two letters purportedly written by Pushpa Sales Pvt. Ltd., the company that supplied liquid oxygen to the hospital, the AAP claimed that the firm had informed the U.P. CM’s office of pending dues and had warned that non-payment would lead to disconnection of supply.
‘Cold-blooded murders’
The party alleged that the deaths were not an accident, but a case of “cold blooded murders”. The Yogi Adityanath government has claimed that shortage of oxygen was not responsible for the recent deaths at the State-run facility.
Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh, who had visited the hospital on Sunday, said that the company had on April 6 flagged the issue of non-payment of dues with the CMO.
Quoting a letter written by the company’s director, Manish Bhandari, to UP Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon, on August 9, Mr. Singh said that the firm had sent as many as eight reminders to get their pending dues of around ₹67 lakh cleared.
Repeated warnings
As per the letters shared by the AAP, the agency wrote that round-the-clock availability of oxygen was crucial for patients of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome or other life-threatening diseases.
One of the letters mentioned that the agency sent reminders about dues on April 6, April 17, May 2, May 16, June 13, July 6, July 18 and July 31.
“It is a criminal act. There is not an iota of doubt that the children died due to criminal negligence by the government. Cases of murder should be registered against the Chief Minister, Health Minister and other top officials,” Mr. Singh said.
He added that government apathy in the hospital had not ended as families of the deceased are being made to run around to get the death certificates of their children.
“The UP government talks about temples, ambulances for cows. The Prime Minister has all the time to tweet about happenings around the world, but he has no time to spare a word on the Gorakhpur tragedy,” he added.