"What Were You Doing For Encephalitis As CM?": Yogi Adityanath Questions Akhilesh Yadav In Uttar Pradesh Assembly

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath explained what his government has done to deal with Encephalitis and targeted Samajwadi Party (SP) over its incompetence in the state assembly on Friday (11 August).

Citing data, he said that 50,000 children died in 40 years in eastern Uttar Pradesh due to Encephalitis. He then targeted the opposition party saying that Samajwadi Party got the opportunity to work as the CM four times in UP but didn't do anything to solve the problem.

"90 per cent of the children who died belonged to Dalit, minority and the Extreme Backward Castes. Was there no PDA?" Adityanath questioned.

PDA is a term coined by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav for pichhde (backward), Dalit and alpashankhyak (minority) when he stated that these communities have a shared consciousness and feeling against exploitation and oppression.

Adityanath then directly questioned Akhilesh Yadav that despite getting a full five-year term as Chief Minister, "What were you doing that you couldn't solve the problem?"

The CM proudly shared his achievement that the BJP government was able to completely solve the problem in its first term itself.

"Go to Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Deoriya, Gorakhpur, Siddharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Bahraich, Balrampur, Shravasti, Gonda, Lakhimpur Kheri, Pilibhit or go till Saharanpur, Encephalitis has ended, just the announcement is left," he stated.

Vaccines, better and improved sanitation, and clean drinking water are the important aspects that aided Adityanath government's fight against Encephalitis.

The Jal Jeevan Mission provided piped drinking water to more than 10 million homes in 61 districts known for being 'hotspots' of the disease

The state government also started Dastak campaign in 2018 that resulted in vaccination of every child against Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (ASE) — covering 38 affected districts of the state.

This led to the occurrence of the disease dropping by more than half compared to the previous year (2017).

The encephalitis deaths came down by 90 per cent within a couple of years of the Yogi government's efforts.

In 2017, the mortality rate was an improvement at 15 per cent; it was largely credited to a mass JE vaccination drive targeting 88 lakh children. In 2018, the mortality rate was 11 per cent.

The government also spent on health infrastructure. 352 new paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) beds in 88 government hospitals and medical institutions in 72 districts were announced last year. With this addition, the number of PICU beds will go up to 512 across the state.