Grant from Gandhi

Varun Gandhi (pictured), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of parliament (MP) has pledged five crore rupees (USD 778,600) from his Member of Parliament Local Area Development Fund to build a state of the art pediatric wing in Sultanpur in UP (Uttar Pradesh), following the tragedy that took the lives of 60 children over a period of five days in August 2017 at Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital (BRDMCH) in UP’s Gorakhpur, said The Hindu of August 15, 2017. Gandhi represents Sultanpur in parliament.
The MP (@varungandhi80) tweeted on August 13 that "the human tragedy in Gorakhpur has left me jolted.” The pledge will be accompanied by a matching grant of five crore rupees to be "raised personally through donations and collections from corporate social responsibility funding,” Gandhi was quoted in the newspaper. "While grieving the terrible loss of lives of all the children, the incident must act as an impetus to take actions that serve as a deterrent to recurrence of such an event,” he said. The death of the children was allegedly due to lack of oxygen cylinders.
The MP is hopeful that the pediatric wing which will include an in-house research center that would work on prevention of air and water borne diseases "will be fully functional in six months.” Three ambulances and a 100-bed intensive care unit are also envisaged.
The state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh has in interviews refuted the allegations that the deaths in Gorakhpur occurred due to lack of oxygen. "A magisterial enquiry is on – if something comes out, we will definitely take further action,” he told The Economic Times on August 14. Meanwhile, NDTV reported 19 further deaths of children at BRDMCH, including four from encephalitis, in 24 hours, on August 30.
The 37-year-old son of union minister for women and child development Maneka and the late Sanjay Gandhi was inducted as national general secretary of the BJP in March 2012, becoming the youngest person to hold that post in the history of the Party. Varun is a grandson of former Prime Minister Indira and Feroze Gandhi.