Gorakhpur infants' death: Probe panel submits report

Lucknow:  The high-power committee probing the Gorakhpur hospital tragedy today submitted its report to the Uttar Pradesh government.

The committee headed by chief secretary Rajive Kumar submitted the report to the government this evening, an official spokesperson told PTI.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had formed the committee on August 12 to probe the incident, a day after deaths of scores of children in the state-run BRD Medical College was reported.

UP Medical Education minister Ashutosh Tandon had said that action would be taken against those found guilty in the probe.

As the first action, the government had suspended the college principal Dr Rajiv Mishra, who subsequently put in his papers accepting moral responsibility for the tragedy.

A three-member team of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has charged the administration with negligence, saying no alert was issued regarding shortage of oxygen.

The treating doctors should have been alerted seven days in advance that oxygen supply was not being received, the IMA had said on August 18.

A total of 60 infants admitted to the government-run facility had died in a span of 48 hours, allegedly because of the disruption in oxygen supply due to pending payments to the supplier, a charge stoutly refuted by the state government.

The government has maintained that the children died due to different illnesses, including Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and there was no shortage of oxygen.