Rahul must visit Kota, not Italy: BJP fact finding panel

A day after the BJP formed a fact finding committee to inspect what led to the deaths of infants in Kota, the four-member panel visited a hospital in Kota district in Rajasthan on Tuesday and interacted with the patients.

Soon after the visit, one of the members of the committee, Locket Chatterjee, took to twitter to lash out at the Congress-led Rajasthan government for its alleged failure.

She accused Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of celebrating the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance's victory in Jharkhand Assembly polls when infants were dying in his state.

Chatterjee also trained her guns at Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, saying: "Where are Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi? Mothers have lost their infants due to government callousness."

Taking a sharp dig at Rahul Gandhi, the BJP MP from West Bengal tweeted: "Mr. Rahul Gandhi must be busy in new year celebrations in Italy. If he gets time to visit other states, why not visit Rajasthan & see the grim situation?"

As many as 77 infants have died within a month in Kota, 12 of them within a week. In the last one year, over 940 child deaths have been reported.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has urged Chief Minister Gehlot to deal with the issue "sensitively".

Kanta Kardam (Uttar Pradesh), Jaskaur Meena (Rajasthan) and Bharti Pawar (Maharashtra) are the other members of the fact finding committee, which has now upped the ante on the Gehlot government.

The panel was set up on Monday by BJP working President J.P. Nadda. It will submit its report within three days.