49 Infants Die In UP Again; Farrukhabad District Magistrate, 2 Others Removed

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday transferred the Farrukhabad district magistrate as well as the chief medical officer and the chief medical superintendent of the district hospital after the deaths of 49 children in one month. The hospital recorded 49 deaths - 30 in neo-natal ICU and 19 during delivery between July 20 and August 21.

"A high-level team will be sent to Farrukhabad to probe the the deaths and its technical aspects will also be taken care of. Taking note of the incident, the DM, the CMO and the CMS (women's hospital) have been removed,"an official spokesperson said.

An FIR in the matter was registered at city police on Sunday night in Farrukhabad, about 180 km from the state capital, against the CMO and the CMS. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office took prompt notice of the matter after local news channels reported the death of 49 children in the hospital and directed District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar to conduct a probe. City Magistrate Jaynendra Kumar Jain and SDM Ajit Kumar Singh said the probe found that 30 deaths were due to lack of oxygen. They also mentioned in their report that the CMO and the CMS did not cooperate and did not give a correct report. However, it had no mention of the remaining 19 deaths.

A high-level team will be sent to Farrukhabad to probe the the deaths and its technical aspects will also be taken care of. Taking note of the incident, the DM, the CMO and the CMS (women’s hospital) have been removed

The deaths of children in the Farrukhabad hospital has come after at least 30 children died in a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur on August 10-11 amid allegations of oxygen shortage, a charge denied by the state government.