Yogi slams Rahul for turning Gorakhpur into ‘picnic spot’

Lucknow, August 19
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday attacked Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi party national president Akhilesh Yadav for turning Gorakhpur into a “picnic spot”.
He was speaking at a function at a Dalit basti in Andhyari Bagh in his constituency of Gorakhpur while inaugurating the “Swachh UP, Swasth UP campaign (Clean UP, Healthy UP).
“Lucknow mein baitha shehzada aur Delhi mein baitha yuvraj is swachch abhiyaan ke mahatva ko nahi jaan payega. Gorakhpur unke liye picnic spot banney iski ijazat hamey nahi deni chahiye.” (The princes sitting in Lucknow and Delhi do not understand the importance of the cleanliness drive. We should not allow them to make Gorakhpur a picnic spot).
Attacking the state governments of the past 12-15 years for ruining institutions in the state for their selfish motives by “institutionalising corruption”, CM Yogi said this had kept people deprived of facilities.
“I started a movement against encephalitis. I drew the attention of every government to sanitation and clean drinking water,” he claimed.He pointed out that his government had started a massive immunisation drive against the disease vaccinating 98 lakh children in 38 districts.
Blaming the earlier governments for not paying attention to cleanliness causing the deaths due to Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), he urged the common people to connect with the “Swachh UP, Swasth UP’ campaign which he launched from Gorakhpur on Saturday.
According to him, if the people treat it as their campaign and not the BJP government’s programme, eastern UP could get rid of diseases like dengue, encephalitis, kala azar and swine flu. Yogi virtually putting the responsibility of the recent death of 30 children within 48 hours at Gorakhpur’s Baba Ram Das Medical College hospital at the doorstep of the previous governments comes in the wake of his asking his cabinet colleagues to strongly counter the opposition’s ‘propaganda’ on the issue during the cabinet meeting earlier this week.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is also visiting Gorakhpur on Saturday where he would meet the family members of children who lost their lives at the BRD Medical College. He is scheduled to visit the college later in the day.