'Fight over, can we do some work?': Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to Centre amid row over oxygen

In the report on Friday, the Supreme Court-appointed audit panel said that the Delhi government exaggerated its oxygen requirement by four times in April and May.

A day after Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party sparred over an interim report by a Supreme Court-appointed panel to look into oxygen crisis in the Capital during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday hit back again. This time, Kejriwal called on the Centre to work together "so that no one is short of oxygen in the third wave."

File photo of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. (ANI file photo)

"If your fight over oxygen is over, can we get back to work? Let's make such a system together that there is no shortage of oxygen in the third wave. In the second wave, people suffered a severe shortage of oxygen. Now, this should not happen in the third wave," the Aam Aadmi Party leader tweeted in Hindi. "If we fight amongst ourselves then Corona will win. If we fight together, the country will win," he added.

In the report on Friday, the Supreme Court-appointed audit panel said that the Delhi government exaggerated its oxygen requirement by four times in April and May. However, the Delhi government rejected the claims and, in turn, accused the BJP of misleading people. Manish Sisodia, Delhi's deputy chief minister, said that findings of the audit committee "do not exist." "We have heard of a so-called report that claims oxygen demand in Delhi was exaggerated. BJP leaders have been citing such a report against the AAP government. The truth is: There is no such report. The BJP is misleading people. No such report exists. The BJP is lying," Sisodia said in a video press briefing on Friday.

On Saturday, Dr Randeep Guleria, the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences who led the panel, said it would not be correct to say that Delhi "exaggerated" its oxygen needs. Guleria made the comments while speaking to television news channel NDTV. He also said that the oxygen audit is an "interim report," and we should wait for the final version, according to the NDTV report.

Delhi faced an acute shortage of medical oxygen and other key supplies as the Covid-19 second wave created havoc in the country. Several big hospitals of the city sent SOS calls reporting a shortage of oxygen even as the Delhi government blamed the Centre for inadequate allocation of the gas by the Centre.