As many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in last 48 hours at Gorakhpur’s BRD Hospital. (ANI)

As many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in last 48 hours at Gorakhpur’s BRD Hospital, reported ANI today. The children died allegedly after oxygen supply was cut, TV reports said. However, the UP government has denied that deaths happened due to oxygen supply cut. Gorakhpur is Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath’s former Parliamentary constituency. Earlier, on August 9, UP Chief Minister had gone to the hospital for inspection. According to ABP News, the hospital had to pay of Rs 66 Lakh to a company. But as the cost was not paid, the oxygen supply was allegedly stopped, resulting in the tragic incident.

Here are updates on the tragic incident:

FOR LATEST UPDATES ON GORAKHPUR TRAGEDY

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said he is deeply pained. Rahul held BJP government responsible for the tragic incident and demanded action.

Deeply pained.My thoughts are with the families of the victims.BJP govt is responsible & should punish the negligent,who caused this tragedy https://t.co/rdwDJblJEj — Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 11, 2017

Congress President Sonia Gandhi expresses her deep shock at the tragic incident and said she was pained beyond words by the tragedy. She said that her heart goes out to the families of the innocent children who fell prey to “gross negligence and incorrigible misconduct on the part of the authorities,” as per IANS.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and UP Congress President Raj Babbar to visit Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur tomorrow, ANI reports.

UP government denies reports that children died due to oxygen supply cut.

Gorakhpur District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela confirmed the death of children in the last 48 hours at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College. However, he didn’t confirm the reason. “Total 30 deaths in last 48 hours,” he told ANI. According to ANI, Rautela said, “Supply of liquid oxygen was disrupted yesterday due to pending payment.” He has requested suppliers not to disrupt supply. A total number of 60 deaths have occurred in the past 5 days at, the report added.

A total number of 60 deaths have occurred in the past 5 days at Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital. (ANI)

30 children died in 2 Days. (ANI)

गोरखपुर के बीआरडी मेडिकल कॉलेज में ऑक्सीजन की कमी से किसी रोगी की मृत्यु नहीं हुई है। — Government of UP (@UPGovt) August 11, 2017

कुछ चैनलों पर चलाई गई ऑक्सीजन की कमी से पिछले कुछ घंटों में अस्पताल में भर्ती कई रोगियों की मृत्यु की खबर भ्रामक है। — Government of UP (@UPGovt) August 11, 2017

Tragic loss of lives in a #Gorakhpur Hospital is a very sad news. My heart goes out to the family members, who have lost loved ones. #UP — Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) August 11, 2017

जिलाधिकारी अस्पताल में मौजूद रहकर स्थिति पर नजर रखे हुए हैं। — Government of UP (@UPGovt) August 11, 2017

There should be an inquiry and if it is due to negligence then action must be taken against responsible authorities.#Gorakhpur #Uttarpradesh — Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) August 11, 2017

मृतकों के परिजनों को लाश देकर भगा दिया गया, मृतक का पोस्टमार्टम तक नहीं हुआ है, भर्ती कार्ड भी गायब कर दिया गया है । अत्यन्त दुखद । — Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) August 11, 2017

Heartbreaking news out of #Gorakhpur, 30 children dead due to hospital and govt negligence. Our deepest sympathies with their families. https://t.co/CNeegmqzj1 — Congress (@INCIndia) August 11, 2017

According to ANI report, UP medical education minister, Ashutosh Tondon said,” No deaths due to lack of oxygen supply and 7 people have died today.” He added,”District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident, report will be out in 24 hrs.” Tondon further said,”3 deaths happened in Neonatal ICU,2 due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) and 2 due to Non-AES today,” reported ANI.

Earlier in May 2017, as per PTI report, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had launched a campaign to eradicate the deadly encephalitis disease that claims the lives of hundreds of children every year in Uttar Pradesh. He stressed on awareness and public participation for the success of the campaign that has been rolled out in 38 districts in the worst-affected eastern region of the state.

“We eradicated diseases like polio and filaria and now encephalitis is our target,” he said after launching the campaign here. Some 40,000 children have died of the disease in the past four decades in the region. “Today’s campaign has been started with the aim of eradicating encephalitis of all kinds — Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES)– and making the state encephalitis-free in the coming few years,” he said.

The chief minister said that though the programme was on all over the country with the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is taken up with special vigour in the state where more than 38 districts have been hit by the killer disease. “Besides awareness (about the disease), people’s participation is essential (to overcome the challenge) and we will make an appeal to common people to pay importance to hygiene and consume only clean drinking water,” he said.