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‘Blaming previous govts serves no purpose’: Sachin Pilot calls for fixing accountability for death of infants in Kota
Earlier, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and state Health Minister Raghu Sharma had claimed a decline in the infant deaths at JK Lon Hospital during the Congress regime by comparing it with more number of infant deaths during the former BJP regime.
Contradicting his own party’s government over the infant deaths at JK Lon Hospital in Kota on Saturday, Deputy Chief Minister and PCC chief of Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot said that the state government’s response to the deaths at the hospital was not satisfactory, nor sensitive and compassionate and accountability needed to be fixed as one could not avoid responsibility by comparing death figures.
Earlier, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and state Health Minister Raghu Sharma had claimed a decline in the infant deaths at JK Lon Hospital during the Congress regime by comparing it with more number of infant deaths during the former BJP regime. Deputy CM Sachin Pilot invited trouble for the state government in Kota on Saturday by contradicting both the CM and the health minister.
Watch | ‘No point blaming others’: Sachin Pilot on infant’s deaths in Kota
Speaking to reporters after meeting aggrieved families whose wards had died at the JK Lon Hospital of Kota recently, Pilot said, “The death of so many infants at the JK Lon Hospital in less time is heart wrenching and it has shaken up the whole country as mostly the extremely poor come to this hospital for treatment.”
A report is being prepared about whether there was lack of facilities, administrative issues, criminal negligence or any other reason but accountability in infant deaths needs to be fixed, he said.
“When so many infants have died, no responsibility will be fixed in the matter?” Pilot questioned.
When asked whether he was contradicting his own government, Pilot said, “Whatever I am saying is with responsibility and it is my firm belief.”
“I am not politicizing the issue but raising the issue of accountability,” he said.
On the issue of compensation, he said that everyone should do more to help the aggrieved families.
“If we try to create a web of the number of infant deaths then it is not acceptable to those who have lost their infants as only a mother delivering the infant knows the pain of losing her ward,” he said.
“It is insufficient to just talk about the figures of the past. We have to make people trust us that we will not accept such incidents,” he said.
When asked whether he will report the matter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he said that everyone is concerned about the incident.
“The response to the infant deaths could have been more sensitive and compassionate as so many infants have died at the hospital,” he said in a veiled attack on his own government.
“If the Vasundhara Raje government did not sanction beds or funds, people defeated them in the elections,” he said.
Ministers Ramesh Meena and Uday Lal Anjana also accompanied Sachin Pilot during his visit to Kota.
