Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah criticised Gupta for his remark, saying that the bureaucrat should be sent out in the cold with lesser clothes.
"Can't die of the cold!!!! Send him out in a few less clothes and let's see if he isn't singing a different tune pretty damn quick," Omar wrote on twitter.
Yadav also said that statements by officials or Samajwadi Party workers should not put the government or the party in the dock.
Gupta had yesterday said, "No person dies due to cold or else no one would have survived in Siberia, which is one of the coldest parts of the world."
The bureaucrat had said, "The cause of death could be because of food poisoning or pneumonia. Pneumonia happens due to cold, but cause of death is not cold."
He had said, "We have a report that two, three or four persons died because of pneumonia, but nobody said they died due to cold...."
On the Muzaffarnagar issue, Yadav said the state government had taken necessary steps to provide relief to riot victims, but as Lok Sabha elections are near, attempts were being made to take political mileage by raking up the issue.
"Everyone wants the riot victims to return to their homes....Administration is talking to them. We are trying to persuade them (to return)," he said, adding that attempts were being made to defame the government.
After SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's statement that "conspirators" were living in the relief camps in Muzaffarnagar, Gupta's remark has raked up a major controversy, with the state opposition parties demanding the SP government's resignation.
