MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Working President Supriya Sule on Tuesday slammed the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena Government over the death of 24 patients in Dr Shankarrao Chavan Medical College and Hospital in Nanded and asked the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to seek the resignation of the concerned minister.

"The hospital should have ample stock of medicines. I have repeatedly demanded that medicines for dog bite and snake bite should be available. However, it is seen from the news and complaints of the citizens that there is a shortage of medicines in most of the government hospitals in the state and doctors are not available. This means that the Government does not pay attention to the basic facilities of the citizens", the NCP leader posted on Facebook.

"The Chief Minister must take serious notice of these incidents and immediately resign from the concerned ministers," she added.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also took to X and pointed out the "carelessness" of the current Maharashtra Government

"It is being said that these deaths occurred due to a shortage of medicines. How can a government be so careless? These people are busy in forming and bringing down the government by buying and selling of MLAs but they do not care about the lives of the people." Kejriwal posted on X.

"24 deaths, which include 12 newborn babies, in 24 hours in the government hospital in Nanded happened due to a lack of supply of medicine by the state government", NCP's Vikas Lawande wrote on X.

Dr Shyamrao Wakode, in charge dean of the Medical College, said that the deceased were suffering from various ailments including snake bites, arsenic and phosphorus poisoning, etc.

"Around 12 children died in the last 24 hours and 12 adults also died due to various ailments (snake bites, arsenic and phosphorus poisoning etc.). Due to transfers of various staff, there was some difficulty for us. We were supposed to buy medicines from the Haffkine Institute but that also didn't happen. Also, patients come from far off to this hospital and there were many patients whose sanctioned budget also got disturbed," Dr Shyamrao Wakode said.