By IANS,
New Delhi : Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh will Thursday visit Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh to enquire about efforts to control Japanese Encephalitis that has killed at least 450 people in the state.
“He (Azad) will leave for Gorakhpur today (Thursday) with a health ministry team and will be back Friday,” a health ministry official told IANS.
Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Prasad Singh said party general secretary Rahul Gandhi requested Azad to visit the eastern Uttar Pradesh area, around 260 km from Lucknow, after reports of hundreds of lives having been lost due to the killer virus.
Over 3,000 children have died of the viral disease since 2006 in the state.
Chief Minister Mayawati Wednesday convened a meeting to take stock of the situation.
The loss of lives due to Japanese Encephalitis is expected to become a poll issue in next year’s assembly polls in the state.