The Opposition parties have mounted an attack on the Eknath Shinde government over the deaths in a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar bemoaning the apathy of the state government. NCP leader Sharad Pawar took to X to call out 'the failure of government systems.' "Just two months ago, there was an unfortunate incident where 18 people died in a single night in Kalwa Hospital of Thane Municipal Corporation," he said, adding that the government refused to take the incident seriously, causing it to repeat.
"This shows the failure of government systems. At least considering the seriousness of these unfortunate incidents, the state government needs to ensure that concrete steps are taken so that these incidents are not repeated and the lives of innocent patients are saved," Pawar, the prominent leader of Opposition MVA, added.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that the BJP government spends crores of rupees on publicity but there is no money for children's medicines. In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said the news of the death of 24 people, including 12 newborns, due to a shortage of medicines in a government hospital in Maharashtra is extremely saddening and expressed his deepest condolences to all the bereaved families. "The BJP government spends thousands of crores of rupees on its publicity, but there is no money for medicines for children? In the eyes of the BJP, the lives of the poor have no value," he alleged.Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked Modi to break his "silence" on the entire episode.In the second such incident in the last two months in Maharashtra, 24 patients admitted to the Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College hospital in Nanded have died in the last 24 hours. Twelve of them were infants. According to officials, inadequate facilities and a shortage of staff and medicines led to the deaths.