No point in blaming past govts: Sachin Pilot

Kota: Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot offered cautious criticism of his government on Saturday, urging the Congress to be "compassionate and sensitive" following the deaths of more than 100 infants at a state-run hospital in Kota district.

Pilot's comment comes two days after Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot suggested the number of deaths was good news given over 1,100 had died at the same hospital in 2016, when the BJP was in power.

"I think our response to this could have been more compassionate and sensitive. After being in power for 13 months I think it serves no purpose to blame the previous government's misdeeds... accountability should be fixed," Sachin Pilot, who visited the JK Lon Hospital where the deaths occurred, was quoted as saying.

At least 10 of the infants who died at the JK Lon Hospital in the state died in a 48-hour period starting December 23, with a further nine dying in the last two days of the month.

Meanwhile, row has erupted after the hospital adminstration rolled out a "green carpet" to welcome Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma.

After the decision was slammed by the Opposition BJP and others, the JK Lon Hospital administration removed the carpet shortly before the minister's arrival.

Asked about the preparations to welcome him at the hospital, Sharma said when he came to know about it he immediately directed the officials to not do such things.

The committee formed by the Rajasthan government to probe deaths, has confirmed in its report that infants died due to hypothermia, a medical emergency that occurs when the body temperature falls below 95 F (35 C).

The normal body temperature is 98.6 F (37 C). Even as the kids in the hospital continued to die in the biting winter cold, the hospital did not have enough stocks of lifesaving equipment, said the report.

The newborns should have body temperature of 36.5 degree celcius; therefore they were kept on warmers where their temperature stays normal.

However, as the hospital lacked functional warmers, their body temperature continued to plummet.