As top hospitals in the national capital continue to struggle to tackle the unprecedented rise in Covid19 infections, Supreme Court of India said this morning that the central government has to supply 700 metric tonnes of medical oxygen to Delhi every day till further orders.
The Apex Court said in sharp remarks, “When we say 700 metric tonnes, it means (the amount of medical oxygen to be supplied) every day to Delhi. Please do not drive us to a situation to take coercive steps. We are clarifying that it will be 700 MT every day.”
Today was the third straight day that the shortage of medical oxygen, a key challenge that has emerged in India’s fight against a deadly second Covid19 wave was discussed in the top court.
Delhi government’s lawyer Rahul Mehra today told the court that the city got 527 MT oxygen by midnight. He further added that while 89 MT of O2 was received by today 9 AM, 16 MT was on the way.
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Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud told the centre this morning, “Yesterday we noticed lot of caveats on tankers. We are not going into this, we are not drivers.”
The Apex Court said that it has constituted an expert panel to conduct an oxygen audit to understand the need of oxygen for every state.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court had made it very clear, stating, “You will have to give 700 tonnes to Delhi (700 tonnes dena hi padega)”.
“If nothing is to be hidden, let it come before the nation how allocation and distribution is done transparently by the centre,” the Apex court had said, adding, “The centre continues to be in contempt for not supplying 700 tonnes of oxygen to Delhi.”
Many hospitals in the city, over the last two weeks have sent distress messages on social media, seeking urgent help.
Last week, 12 people, including a doctor, died at Delhi’s Batra Hospital on Saturday after the facility ran out of oxygen.
A week before that 25 people died due to shortage of low oxygen pressure at the Jaipur Golden Hospital in the city. However, the hospital later said that the cause of death of 21 of those patients could not be ascertained by an expert committee which probed the incident.
