The Congress on Wednesday alleged hundreds of children in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand have died due to medical negligence in Government hospitals, and demanded the resignation of the two Chief Ministers — Jharkhand CM Raghubhar Das and UP CM Adityanath, along with a judicial probe by a sitting High Court judge.

Congress spokesperson RPN Singh alleged that after the recent deaths of over 60 children in Gorakhpur, there have been 61 more deaths in UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's constituency. “We saw 61 children dying in past 72 hours in Gorakhpur. This is repeat of a similar tragedy in Gorakhpur where 60 children had died,” Singh said at party briefing.

Singh said due to “gross complicity” and “utter negligence”, more than 200 children have died in the same BRD hospital in Gorakhpur this month alone. “Notwithstanding the shameful tragedy which we saw when 64 children died due to shortage of oxygen, the sheer complacency of the BJP Government under Adityanath continues,” he said.

Singh alleged that in every BJP-ruled State, children are dying due to utter callousness of the State Governments. “We demand the immediate resignations of Jharkhand CM Raghubhar Das and UP CM Adityanath on account of Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Gorakhpur deaths. We demand the Health Ministers of Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh be immediately sacked, pending a judicial enquiry. We also demand the Prime Minister should look into the serious deficiencies in the health infrastructure in BJP-ruled States. The Women and Child Development Ministry should immediately release more funds to Jharkhand to tackle this extremely important issue,” said the former Union Minister.

The Congress leader alleged the Jharkhand Government is saying the deaths are due to malnutrition, but that the truth is 50 per cent of funds for the Women and Child Development Ministry were slashed by the Modi Government in 2015 after it came to power. The Congress has filed a complaint with the NHRC which has issued a notice to the chief secretary in Jharkhand seeking a report in six weeks.

“Our protests in Jamshedpur continue, due to which the High Court has also taken cognisance and asked the civil and sessions judge to visit the hospital and give a report. What is more shocking is that the Chief Minister has not spoken a word about this tragedy or visited the hospital, despite it being in his home district,” Singh said.