Lucknow, Aug 18 (IANS): The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government on the deaths of over 70 children, including infants, at a hospital in Gorakhpur.

The court, while hearing a public suit filed by social activist Nutan Thakur, directed the Yogi Adityanath government and the Director General of Medical Health to file a detailed affidavit on the matter within six weeks and fixed October 9 as the next date of hearing.

A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Daya Shankar Tiwari passed the order after hearing the petitioner, Advocate General of UP Raghvendra Pratap Singh and the counsel of the Medical Education Department Sanjay Bhasin.

The Advocate General opposed the petition saying that the state government has taken every possible measure in the matter and will take all possible action as per the report submitted by the committee headed by the Chief Secretary, formed under the instructions of the Chief Minister.

The petitioner however contended that so far whatever has been appearing in the media about the incident raised doubts about the action and that it has created a perception that attempts were being made to fudge facts and shield the guilty.

Thakur also made a supplementary point about private practice by government doctors and called for a blanket ban on this.

Over 70 children have died at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College over the last 10 days, reportedly due to encephalitis related complications, lack of treatment and disruption of oxygen supply.

The accusations have been vehemently denied by the state government while the families of the deceased children have said that lack of liquid oxygen during critical periods caused the deaths.