Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the cleanliness drive launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had transformed the lives in eastern Uttar Pradesh where children used to die of encephalitis but now the death rate had come down by almost 99 per cent.
“In the past, the Basti division was rattled by encephalitis. In the last 40 years, between 500 and 600 children used to die every year because of this dreaded disease. But the cleanliness drive has put a brake on this. This year, only six deaths have been reported. One can say the decline in mortality is by almost 99 per cent,” Yogi Adityanath said while addressing a gathering in Gorakhpur on Sunday.
He said after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power, a decisive battle was launched against encephalitis and with better coordination among various departments, coupled with a cleanliness drive, the government was able to bring down the mortality rate.
After Yogi became the chief minister of UP, he took up the cudgel to eradicate encephalitis from the region. When he was MP from Gorakhpur, he had raised the issue of encephalitis and its menace in that region in the Lok Sabha 18 times in the House during his tenure as MP.
“When I became the chief minister, the first meeting I took was with the health officials on encephalitis. Experts from across the country were asked to chip in with their suggestion. The National Institute of Virology at Pune was contacted and was asked to set up its satellite centre in Gorakhpur,” Yogi said.
“I have seen small children die or some of them who survived become mentally retarded after the Japanese encephalitis attack. My personal experience was that we can prevent the disease or ensure quick treatment if changes are made in the basic structure. We did that. We strengthened PHCs (primary health centres) in the rural areas and imparted special training to doctors and paramedics on treating encephalitis patients. Sanitation drives were carried out across the villages and this has shown results,” Yogi said.
Talking about the role of Goraksh Peeth in Gorakhpur, Yogi said that Mahant Digvijay Nath and Mahant Avaidyanath had sacrificed their lives for the betterment of society. “They dreamt about construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya and their dreams are coming true after 492 years,” he said.
“Goraksh Peeth is a religious peeth but it is not only limited to rituals. The peeth connects people with service of mankind and guides the followers to do their duties with devotion and dedication,” he said.
The function was attended by Mahant of Digambar Akhara Mahant Suresh Das, local lawmakers Ravi Kishan, Kamlesh Paswan, Shiv Pratap Shukla, Sheetal Pandey, Vipin Singh, Rakesh Singh Baghel, Mayor Sitaram Jaiswal and others.