LUCKNOW: As the death of 23 children in a single day in Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRDMC) grabs national headlines, a sharp cut by the Aditya Nath Yogi government in the budgetary allocation for medical education this year is raising questions. That’s because this is the head under which the BRDMC, like other state-run colleges, receives funds.The budgetary allocation for 14 such medical colleges and their associated teaching hospitals has been pared to less than half from Rs 2,344 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 1,148 crore for 2017-18. The allocation for BRDMC followed the pattern, plunging from Rs 15.9 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 7.8 crore for 2017-18. More specifically, its allocation for machines/equipment was slashed from Rs 3 crore to just Rs 75 lakh.The budgetary allocation fell across all medical colleges. For example, the medical colleges in Kanpur and Allahabad saw their allocations come down from Rs 15.9 crore each to Rs 3.3 crore and Rs 4.2 crore, respectively.