UP government should stop its ministers from making insensitive remarks: Jagadambika Pal

Commenting on Uttar Pradesh Sports Minister Narad Rai's statement that death is not specific to relief camps, and people die in palaces too, Congress leader Jagadambika Pal on Sunday said the UP government needs to instruct its ministers to stop making insensitive statements.

"It seems that the UP government is not able to stop its ministers from making insensitive statements and being irresponsible. At least Akhilesh Yadav should instruct his ministers to be more sensitive to such issues," said Pal.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Tariq Anwar said it was extremely sad that a person holding a responsible position was making such comments.

"This is very sad that the responsible people are making comments like this. It shows how insensitive they are towards the suffering of the people. The Chief Minister has to take some action against him," said Anwar.

Samajwadi Party leader Kamal Farooqi said that he was not surprised by the statement.

"The president of the SP, the CM of UP and the secretary are making such comments and it reflects their outlook towards such issues. Instead of showing sympathy, they are making comments which show no humanity. The children are in a bad condition in the camps. It is a shameful thing to say such a thing," said Farooqi.

Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said the comments made by Narad Rai was extremely insensitive.

"It is very sad that he made such an insensitive statement. A minister saying such thing is not good for the people. He should be removed immediately," she said.

Congress leader Meem Afzal said that those making comments are not thinking before what they are saying and that they were just following what their high command was doing.

UP Sports Minister Narad Rai on Saturday said that death occurs everywhere, even in palaces. "Death of children, adults or elderly is inevitable. It isn't necessary that only those living in camps are dying. People die in palaces too. It isn't that children in our homes don't die. Deaths occur everywhere," Rai said.

Few days back the Akhilesh Yadav government had accepted that 34 children living in relief camps have died in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar and Shamli. The admission of deaths by the state government was based on a report by a high-level official panel formed by it to probe the fatalities in relief camps.

Officials said that these deaths took place between September 7 and December 20, when winter chill set in. While 12 children died in the camps, the remaining 22 died in hospitals or nursing homes where they were taken for medical care.