In heart-wrenching incident close to 108 children died in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur in the past week. This goes to show the poor state of district hospitals.
Exposing the lack of interest of government towards the massive number of deaths owing to encephalitis, Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey was busy enquiring India Pakistan match score during a press briefing held by Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.
The meeting was organised to take preventive measures and to bear with Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) deaths by improving medical services in the state.
In a video that has gone viral on social media, the Bihar minister can be seen asking “kitna score hua?” Someone replied “four” to the question.
While the little children were dying in one of country’s poorest states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was tweeting videos of yoga whereas Home Minister Amit Shah was busy tweeting about the ICC Cricket World Cup.
MoS Health Ashwini Choubey was spotted yawning and allegedly ‘snoozing’ at the same meeting as well. He could be seen sitting with his eyes closed even as Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan spoke at the meet, as per the video.
Backing himself, Choubey said he was merely “deliberating” on the matter and not really sleeping during the meeting.
The deadly fever has by far claimed more than 100 lives in Muzaffarpur and the adjoining districts in Bihar. It has been learnt that most of the casualties affected by the Syndrome are between the age group of 1-10.
Several reports say that hospitals are keeping four children on a single bed owing to high influx of patients.
The National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) has now issued a big notice to Chief Secretary, Govt of Bihar and Secretary, Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, requesting for a comprehensive report in deaths owing to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome in Muzaffarpur, Bihar.
A case has been registered against Union Health Minister Hash Vardhan and Mangal Pandey in Muzaffarpur for not creating awareness about Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) before outbreak.