Children receive treatments in the Encephalitis Ward at the BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur where over 30 children in four days. Photo: PTIChennai/ Gorakhpur: One July morning thirteen years ago, the thatched roof of a private school at Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu caught fire, which spread quickly to the rest of the school and killed 94 children in one deadly inferno. A judicial commission that investigated the matter brought out the apathy, greed and collusion that ended in the Kumbakonam horror. Few lessons have been learnt in the intervening years, it seems, with last week’s mass death of children at BDR Medical College in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur due to a suspected oxygen shortage. Learning the right lessons from Gorakhpur could save lives in the future.

Source: Mint August 14, 2017 22:30 UTC