HC wants to know what action UP govt took into Gorakhpur

The Allahabad High Court today asked the Uttar Pradesh government to inform it about action taken on the inquiry report of the chief secretary into the deaths of children in the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur.

The Lucknow bench of the High Court set August 28 as the next date of hearing in the matter.

The bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice DS Tripathi was hearing a PIL moved by one Dilip Kumar Verma.

Earlier this month, 72 children admitted to the government-run hospital in Gorakhpur had died within a span of three days.

The government has maintained that the children died due to different illnesses, including Japanese Encephalitis (JE).
 

According to the petitioner's counsel V K Singh, the petitioner had sought CBI or judicial probe into the Gorakhpur incident as well as into the corruption allegedly prevailing in government hospitals. The PIL included the issue of fire in KGMU Lucknow recently.

The court was told on behalf of the state government that the government had already set up an inquiry by the chief secretary who has submitted the report. The government is considering the report, the court was told.

The committtee headed by chief secretary Rajive Kumar submitted the report to the government last evening.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had formed the committee on August 12 to probe the incident, a day after death of scores of children in the state-run BRD Medical College was reported.

UP Medical Education minister Ashutosh Tandon had said that action would be taken against those found guilty in the probe.

As the first action, the government had suspended the college principal Dr Rajiv Mishra, who subsequently put in his papers accepting moral responsibility for the tragedy.