The Gorakhpur tragedy: a man-made one

At the end of the day, one fact is clear: human lives ,especially those of children is very cheap in our country. Inspite of clear warnings from the private firm(Pushpa Private Limited, PPL) from a long time to the BRD Hospital about their inability to supply further liquid oxygen due to the mounting dues(almost Rs 70 lakhs) and a particularly clear letter stating the same on August 1^st the hospital took no action.

The oxygen supply kept falling and the hospital staff incharge of maintaining the pipeline also gave written letters to the authorities(August 10^th) about the falling oxygen supply. All was ignored and the country woke up only after 60 innocent children lost their lives.

Government continues to be in denial

Or have we woken up at all? The U.P government and the ruling BJP government still continues to be in denial mode refusing to clearly accept the glaring facts about shortage of oxygen, with the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath saying in a press conference that no deaths of children had occurred due to shortage of oxygen.

Sixty deaths have been reported from the Paediatric wards of the hospital, mainly from the Neonatal or Newborn ward from August 7^th to August 11^th, with 30 deaths on August 10^th and 11^th alone. Of the 60, 12 children died due to Acute Encephalitis syndrome. The Principal resigned after being suspended for negligence. Some heads had to fall after such a huge disaster.

Meanwhile police have been deployed in large numbers. Patients continue to pour in, doctors are now maintaining silence about the tragedy, a totally preventable one.

Is the situation any better in other Goverment hospitals in our country? Only poor patients frequent these hospitals as they cannot afford to go anywhere else. All of us know their state of maintenance/negligence. Welcome to the 70th year of Independent India.