Gorakhpur tragedy: Allahabad HC orders Yogi’s UP government to respond to PIL filed within 6 weeks

Lucknow/Uttar Pradesh, August 18: The Allahabad High Court on Friday directed the Uttar Pradesh  government and the Director General of medical education of the state to file an accurate counter testimony within 6 weeks. The order is in regard to the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the deaths of the children in the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur.

The Lucknow bench of the high court fixed the date October 9 as the next scheduled date of hearing. The justices Vikram Nath and Daya Shankar Tiwari gave the order on the public Interest Litigation filed by activist Nutan Thakur.

The Advocate General Raghavendra Pratap Singh denied the petition stating that the state government has already taken all the available actions and would take all required actions as per the report which was given by the chief secretary. He also argued that till now the action of the state government conveyed a message that it was trying to cover up the facts and protecting the guilty.

Till Thursday, the death toll in the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital since 7 August was 71 due to several causes which also included encephalitis.

The Uttar Pradesh government declined the claim that some of the deaths were stated to be caused due to shortage of oxygen supply.