Varanasi hospital deaths: Cong demands sacking of UP health

The Congress today demanded the immediate sacking of Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh over the death of 14 patients in a Varanasi hospital and asked Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath to step down on moral grounds.
Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala also demanded registration of a case against the BJP MLA from Allahabad, Harshvardhan Vajpayi, who is linked to the firm that allegedly supplied industrial-grade gas to the hospital instead of anaesthesia that led to the deaths.
He also accused Adityanath of "utter failing" to govern Uttar Pradesh and alleged that "Yogi has made people of Uttar Pradesh 'rogi' (sick)".

"We demand that the health minister of Uttar Pradesh, who has been found to be a deliberate and consistent offender when it comes to dealing with peoples' health, should be sacked," Surjewala told reporters.
"If morality has any play, then Yogi Adityanath should forthwith step down, for he has completely and utterly failed to govern Uttar Pradesh. He is playing with people's lives," he alleged.
"There can be no act of greater criminal culpability of the Uttar Pradesh government as also the hospital administration than this," he alleged.

This is not the first time that it has been done in this Banaras Hindu University Hospital, he alleged.

The Congress leader said instead of sermonising on dengue in Kerala "it is time that he came back, followed his 'Raj Dharma' or put in his papers as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh".
"The truth is that since Yogi Adityanath has taken over, the entire UP has become 'Rogi' (sick). So, Yogi has made UP 'rogi' (sick)," he alleged.
Surjewala alleged 360 children died in Gorakhpur right under his nose as Rs 65 lakh were not paid for oxygen, while in Farrukhabad 49 children died and now 14 people had died in June in the BHU hospital.
The Congress leader claimed another tragic accident had come to light where "deliberate" death of patients had taken place "not on account of negligence, but on account of criminal culpability".

He alleged many patients have died in the surgical ward of BHU hospital because industrial-grade gas was administered to them instead of anaesthesia.