Kota (Rajasthan), Dec 12 (PTI) A four-member panel formed by the BJP to inspect what led to the deaths of 12 infants in Kota visited a hospital here on Saturday and expressed displeasure over lack of medical staff and facilities.

Nine newborns, all of them between one and four days old, died at the J K Lon Hospital on Thursday, within a span of hours, a year after the same facility had hit national headlines over the deaths of an unusual number of infants.

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On Friday, three more newborns -- two born just a day ago and another a month old -- died at the hospital, its Superintendent Suresh Chand Dulara had said.

The BJP panel demanded resignation of the state's Health Minister Raghu Sharma, alleging that even after the deaths of 110 infants in December last year, the J K Lon hospital is still in the same "pitiful condition".

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The committee comprises Daussa MP Jaskaur Meena, Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly Rajendra Singh Rathore and party MLAs Madan Dilawar and Sandeep Sharma.

Rathore alleged that hospital authorities have told the panel that 13 infants died on December 10 and five others on December 11, taking the toll to 18 in two days.

"The state government is responsible for the deaths and the health minister should immediately resign from his seat," he said.

The BJP panel also pointed out that recommendations given by the committees formed last year to improve the condition of the hospital have not yet been taken into consideration.

It claimed that 100 ventilators provided by the central government last year have not been put into use.

The Rajasthan government's three member probe panel, led by Health and Education Commissioner Shivangi Swarnkar, visited the hospital on Friday night.

During her visit, Swarnkar reprimanded hospital officials over the unhygienic condition of the medical facility.

On Saturday, Rajasthan State Child Rights Protection Commission chairperson Sangeeta Beniwal also paid a visit to the hospital and expressed anguish over the poor condition of the facility.

"A factual report on equipment and apparatus functional in the hospital would be sought as the officials of the hospital could not give a satisfactory reply on it," she told reporters.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)