Samajwadi Party MP Praveen Nishad demanded on November 22 that a 500-bed encephalitis ward be opened in the district as he submitted a memorandum asking the administration to ensure transparency in data of deaths due to the disease.

SP members led by MP Nishad and party district president Prahlad Yadav marched from the BRD Medical College here to Commissioner's office and handed over a two-point memorandum addressed to the Governor. The MP said 98 per cent construction work of the 500-bed ward was completed during the previous Akhilesh Yadav regime but instead of opening it, the present government is focusing on construction of other encephalitis ward.

"We demand that the 500-bed ward be opened as soon as possible so that people of the area will be benefited" he said. "Our next demand is to bring transparency in data as it was in the previous governments. Now, no death data of encephalitis is getting issued by the BRD Medical College and it shows that somewhere something is wrong and at the end of the year it is simply stated that death rate has lowered. We want daily release of encephalitis data by BRD Medical college," he said.

The party workers also celebrated 80th birthday of party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav by cutting a cake at the party office. "Mulayam Singh ji is the leader of people and always fought for their rights so we thought that fighting for people's right is the best way to celebrate his birthday," Nishad said.