Gorakhpur tragedy: CM Yogi Adityanath faces questions MP Yogi asked 20 times in 12 years
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)
Caught in the crossfire of questions over the deaths of children in the state government-run BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath shouldn’t be surprised — or unprepared.
Lok Sabha records scrutinised by The Indian Express show that Yogi Adityanath, in his capacity as local MP, has raised the issue of children dying in Gorakhpur at least 20 times between the years 2003 and 2014. Indeed, some of the issues he raised — via questions or statements — echo the very issues that have come to the fore today after the tragic death of over 60 children.
These issues range from limitations of infrastructure at the BRD Medical College and Hospital to the need of an AIIMS there; the importance of timely vaccination and the lack of any concerted action by the state or the Centre in tackling the encephalitis epidemic.
While he asked questions on the issue at least eight times, Yogi Adityanath made a special mention of the issue leading to a debate in the Parliament on not less than 12 occasions. Parliament records show that in April 2003, when Yogi Adityanath first raised the encephalitis issue that led to a debate. He spoke on deaths caused due to brain fever in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and others parts of the country. He raised the issue again in December 2004 calling for attention of the Parliament on the spread of Encephalitis in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other parts of the country resulting in deaths.
Read | Death a constant presence in Gorakhpur hospital
Addressing the issue with the then Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ambumani Ramadoss in the Parliament, in August 2005, Adityanath called for an attention motion on the spread of encephalitis and steps taken by the government. Incidentally, Japanese Encephalitis led to 367 deaths across 12 states in 2004 and UP alone accounted for 228 such deaths. In 2005, the total number of deaths caused by encephalitis was 1,682, out of which 1,500 were in UP alone.
Addressing Parliament on July 13, 2009, Adityanath said that it was 1978 when Japanese Encephalitis spread in Eastern UP for the first time. “Japanese encephalitis is a kind of epidemic and starts to wreak havoc after rains after June 15 and continues till October November. During NDA period, for 4-5 years, this area was adopted for vaccination. It is sad this this year 98 deaths have already happened (till July 2009) and neither vaccination has been carried out nor any concrete steps have been taken for eradication of this disease…it has been 31 years and a large part of Eastern UP and Western Bihar are in the grip of a epidemic and every year thousands of children die because of this disease.”
Read | NHRC issues notice to UP government
He said that the number of deaths in BRD Medical College alone stood at: 937 in 2005; 431 in 2006; 516 in 2007; 410 in 2008 and 98 in 2009 until July.
In the same speech, he told Parliament that while the Central government provides resources to the state government, they are not utilised properly. He highlighted the inability of BRD Medical to cope with the healthcare burden of Eastern UP, Western Bihar and a large part of Nepal. “BRD Medical College has weak financial resources. The burden of healthcare of Eastern UP, Western Bihar and a large part of Nepal falls on BRD Medical College and it is not able to take that,” he had said.
He made similar speeches in Dec 2011 and November 2013 in which he updated the death numbers at BRD Medical College. He said that the number of deaths at BRD Medical College alone in 2009 was 784; in 2010 it was 514 and till November 2011 it was 618.
While in his 2009 speech, he said that he has been raising this issue every year over the last 13 years, the last time Adityanath called for a debate on spread of Encephalitis was in December 2014. He had called the attention of the Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda to the situation arising out of spread of Encephalitis in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country and steps taken by the Government in this regard.
Over the last three years, the number of deaths have seen no decline. While the number of deaths as a result of encephalitis in UP was 661 in 2014, it was 521 in 2015 and 694 in 2016. This year till July 16, 2017 UP saw 88 deaths from encephalitis.
In 2012 and 2013, he raised questions about the setting up of new campuses of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. In 2016, ahead of the AIIMS foundation stone ceremony in Gorakhpur, he had underlined how the region was wracked by viral and water-borne diseases.
“The (Terai) region has only got B R D Medical College providing health facilities but even that is short on infrastructure and staff compared to the population it caters to,” the MP said. “An AIIMS in Gorakhpur will cater to nearly 7 crore population of eastern UP, northwest Bihar and even Nepal,” Adityanath had said.
Between 2004 and 2017, Japanese Encephalitis has resulted into 15,315 deaths of which UP alone has seen for 8,267 deaths or 54 per cent of the total.
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