Jaipur, January 4: The death toll of infants in a government-run hospital in Rajasthan's Kota has gone up to 107 on Saturday. Lok Sabha Speaker and MP from Kota, Om Birla, met the family members of one of the infants who died in JK Lon Hospital. An official from the Jay Kay Lon hospital in Kota had informed on Thursday that three more children had died in the first two days of the New Year, taking the toll to 103. As per a government report, as many as 91 infants died at the hospital in December 2019. Following the rising number of death cases, the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in the state is under fire from the BJP and other Opposition parties in the State.

According to officials, as many as 105 children have died at the hospital in over a month’s time. Gehlot said that the issue of infant deaths should not be ‘politicized’ and that there could be drawbacks in several hospitals. He further added that during BJP’s term around 1,000 infants used to die in a year but under the current government’s tenure, the count has come down to around 900. Kota Infant Deaths: Sonia Gandhi Upset Over Children Deaths, Seeks Explanation From CM Ashok Gehlot.

In the wake of the rising number of infant deaths, a three-member state government committee of doctors, which was sent to investigate the matter on December 23 and 24, had found that the hospital is short of beds and required improvement. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Friday blamed the previous BJP-led government in the state for the shortage of beds at a Kota Hospital.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to Chief Secretary of Rajasthan to submit a detailed report within 4 weeks about the steps being taken to address the issue.The Commission also asked the Chief Secretary to ensure that such deaths of the children do not recur in future due to lack of infrastructure and health facilities at the hospitals.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 04, 2020 11:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).