BHUBANESWAR: Congress members on Saturday intensified the demand for resignation of Health and Family Welfare Minister Prasanna Acharya over the recent hooch tragedy in Khurda and Cuttack districts which claimed 40 lives and sought the arrest of senior officials responsible for the situation. Raising the issue in the Assembly during the zero hour, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh demanded a statement from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the issue. As digestives punched with alcohol were responsible for the death of so many people, should the Health Minister not resign owning moral responsibility, he asked.As the Health Minister has not resigned so far, the Chief Minister should inform the House and the people why he is not responsible. He wanted to know whether the criteria on morals and responsibility differ from minister to minister.Stating that preliminary inquiry by the commissioner of police showed the people died of consumption of hooch containing medicine, Singh alleged that the Chief Minister protected the Health Minister while the then excise minister AU Singhdeo had resigned on moral grounds.“The CP and the District Collector (Cuttack) have told the media that it was a case of medicine tragedy and not hooch tragedy as alleged,” Singh said. Reiterating the demand for the resignation of the Health Minister, Congress member Santosh Singh Saluja demanded arrest of Acharya, the health secretary, the drugs controller and other senior officials under Section 302 of IPC for the death of 40 persons.“If the then excise minister could resign, why not the Health Minister who is equally responsible for the death of 40 persons,” Saluja asked raising question on BJD government’s claim about transparency.Even though nobody died consuming illicit liquor and deaths were due to consumption of medicines with alcohol, no action has been taken either against the minister or the secretary, he said and added that Acharya should be asked to resign over the incident.
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