Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over the deaths caused by a mystery viral fever in Uttar Pradesh and alleged that concrete steps had not been taken to strengthen the health system across the state.
In a series of tweets posted on Thursday, Priyanka also targeted the BJP government at the Centre over the rising prices of cooking gas, petrol and diesel and charged that there had been no increase in the price of sugarcane procurement from farmers in the last three years.
In her first tweet, the Congress leader posted, “The news of the death of 100 people, including children, due to viral fever in Firozabad, Mathura, Agra and several other places in Uttar Pradesh, is very worrying. The state government has still not taken any concrete steps to strengthen the health system.”
"Look at the condition of hospitals. Is this your Number 1 facility for treatment?" Priyanka tweeted in Hindi and tagged a media report claiming that fever had gripped several districts of the state and in Firozabad the situation was grim with patients being provided treatment on brick benches.
On Wednesday, the Uttar Pradesh government transferred the chief medical officer of Firozabad, where 41 people, mostly children, died of suspected dengue and viral fever. Health officials said that along with Firozabad, the spread of dengue was also suspected in Mathura.
In another tweet, the Congress leader attacked the BJP government over the rising prices and for not raising sugarcane prices without clarifying whether her diatribe was against the UP government or the Centre.
“The BJP government is increasing the price of LPG cylinders every month, and petrol and diesel prices have been hiked 60 to 70 times in three-four months. But the sugarcane price for farmers has not increased for three years?"she tweeted in Hindi with the hashtags ‘mehnge din’ (expensive days) and ‘ganne ke daam badhao’ (raise cane prices).
Meanwhile, last week, the BJP dispensation at the Centre increased the minimum price that sugar mills pay to sugarcane growers by Rs 5 to Rs 290 per quintal for the next marketing year starting October 2021.