Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday lashed out at Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav for making “misleading statements and spreading falsehood” about the public health infrastructure in the state.
“The leader of the opposition should verify his facts before presenting them in the assembly to maintain his credibility. Some people make false statements for vested interests,” the chief minister said, adding: “The Samajwadi Party and truth are like two river banks which will never meet. It’s time for the leader of the opposition to learn to speak truth in the House.”
“Despite being in government four times, the SP did not make any efforts to improve the health facilities in the state. The erstwhile SP government did not even bother to offer condolences to hundreds of innocent children who died in Gorakhpur and adjoining districts year after year due to encephalitis,” Yogi said.
He also reminded Akhilesh that his father Mulayam Singh Yadav became the UP CM for the first time with the support of the BJP in 1989.
“These so-called socialists kept putting obstacles in allotment of land for establishment of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Gorakhpur while we got the land registered soon after taking over in 2017. The CHCs and PHCs were on the verge of closure in the state while the condition of district hospitals was pathetic. During monsoon, encephalitis would wreak havoc in Gorakhpur and neighbouring districts. Every year, 1,200 to 2,000 children died due to encephalitis while around 500 deaths were reported from BRD Medical College alone,” the CM remarked.
“The victims of encephalitis hailed from scheduled caste, minority and backward class families. The Samajwadi Party worked only for using these sections of society as vote banks and did not work for their welfare and uplift. The encephalitis vaccine was developed by Japan in 1905 but it took 100 years to reach India in 2005,” Yogi said, adding that the SP chief should think about their tenure before raising questions on the BJP government.
Moreover, Yogi pointed out that within nine months of the Covid outbreak in March 2020, two companies in India developed vaccines and over 200 crore people have been administered vaccine jabs so far.
Referring to the National Family Health Survey, 2004 and 2005, the chief minister said: “In the last five years and a half, there has been great improvement in the health sector. It is a result of the efforts to prevent anemia that the state’s average is better than the national average in this regard today. Maternal and infant mortality rates are continuously improving.”
Yogi said that his government was clearing the mess left by the previous governments. He added that this year, only 40 cases of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome and seven cases of Japanese Encephalitis have been reported in Gorakhpur so far and not a single child has died. “The response time of 108 ambulances has also been reduced. The government considers 25 crore people of the state as family and all citizens are given health facilities without any discrimination on any ground,” he added.
Taking a dig at Akhilesh, he said that the leader of opposition was nowhere to be seen during the two waves of pandemic in April 2020 and April 2021. “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country got two indigenous vaccines for Covid-19 within nine months of the outbreak. As a result, the whole country is safe today,” he said.
Yogi also condemned Akhilesh for his remarks on the vaccines and said it was tantamount to playing with the lives of people. The chief minister said that the leader of the opposition did nothing when he got the chance to perform.
“However, he should be happy that medical colleges are opening in every district of the state today, weekly health fairs are being organised in villages and encephalitis is on its way out. They may not cooperate, but at least they should not spread negativity and canard by making false and misleading statements,” Yogi said.
The chief minister pointed out that the prime minister has set a target of making the country a $5-trillion economy while Uttar Pradesh has also vowed to become a $1-trillion economy