KATHMANDU: Expressing serious concern over the government’s lackadaisical approach to handling diarrhoea and cholera epidemic in many districts in the mid and far-western regions, youths staged an hour-long sit-in in front of the Ministry of Health and Population here in the Capital today. The youths — belonging to a youth body Independent Youth Pressure Network — also flayed the government’s laxity in responding to the woes of families of those killed and patients fighting with the death in the absence of medicines. “At such very critical time when thousands of people in the western hills have been crying out for a packet of Jeevan Jal, the ministers and their subordinates are busy in foreign trip to fulfill their petty interest,” said a press statement issued by the youth’s body. They also condemned the government for it sent the Health Minister Umakanta Chaudhari on a foreign trip to Germany at such juncture. The youth’s group strongly demanded that the government immediately take serious initiatives to contain the outbreak. “The government should take stringent action against the health personnel those returning without completing the task of bringing the disease under control,” it said. The IYPN is scheduled to hand over a memorandum to the health ministry tomorrow demanding an effective and immediate response to the plight of hundreds of diarrhoea-hit people.