Gorakhpur tragedy: BRD Medical College's 'suspended' principal terms his resignation pre-decided

Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) [India], August 12 (ANI): Terming his resignation as pre-decided, the suspended principal of Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College Rajiv Mishra on Saturday clarified that payments were duly done to the oxygen supplying agencies. "I had already written my resignation earlier, owning up to all the deaths that happened at the BRD Hospital," he told ANI here. When asked about the allegations put forward by oxygen supply agencies about their due payments, he said, "This is a wrong allegation against me. The amount was released from the administration on August 5. The money released from there comes to directorate first and then to us. So the money came to us on 7th evening. The tokens were made on 8th. We had the Chief Minister's visit on 9th, where he, along with other ministers, had a review meeting on encephalitis. On 10th, we sent the bills to the treasury and on 11th, the money went to the accounts of the gas agencies." "The deaths were due to encephalitis, not due to lack of oxygen," he added. Following the furore over multitudes of deaths at BRD hospital in a span of few days allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply, the principal of the college was earlier suspended from his duties. "We are suspending BRD medical college principal with immediate effect for this negligent behaviour," State Minister for Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon said on Saturday, while addressing the media over the tragedy. Tandon also assured of a high level probe into the multiple deaths, headed by the Principal Secretary. An action will be taken after a due report is taken out. Also, the state government reiterated its earlier stand on the deaths and said that the children did not die to disruption of gas supply. Over 30 infants at the BRD Hospital died due to alleged disruption in the supply of liquid oxygen. Following this, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress on Saturday asked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to step down from his post. Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav also informed that a Samajwadi Party delegation would be visiting Gorakhpur and said the state government and administration are hiding crucial facts in the case. According to data procurred from the BRD hospital, in past five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 64 deaths have occurred in the hospital. The procurred data also shows the number of oxygen cylinders sent for refilling each day, showing a clear shortage of liquid oxygen in the hospital. (ANI)