Sisodia: Centre has said no to panel probing deaths related to oxygen shortage

The Union health ministry did not comment on the matter.

Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya has written to the Delhi government that it does not need to form a separate committee for probing oxygen related deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic, citing a separate committee which is already working on it.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. (File photo)

“The central government’s fraud on deaths due to lack of oxygen has come out in the open. Union health minister is presenting false arguments to avoid investigation. He has written to us saying Delhi government does not need to set up a committee to probe deaths caused by shortage of oxygen because a high-level committee, constituted under the Supreme Court’s direction, is already working on the matter across states,” said Sisodia in a video press briefing.

Sisodia said, “By saying that there is no need for a committee to investigate deaths due to oxygen shortage as the task force and sub-group constituted by the Supreme Court is investigating it, the Union health minister is lying shamelessly. Neither the task force set up by the Supreme Court, nor the sub-group formed in the states for oxygen audit is mandated to investigate the deaths due to lack of oxygen, the task force and the sub-group are mandated with configuring allocation of oxygen supply and medicines.”

The Union health ministry did not comment on the matter.

Sisodia on August 20 said lieutenant governor (LG) Anil Baijal has once again rejected the Delhi government’s request for approval to set up an expert committee to investigate instances of deaths caused by shortage of oxygen in Delhi during the last wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in April even as he accused the central government of “mismanagement”.

On May 4, the Delhi government told the Delhi High Court that an expert committee could not ascertain whether 21 deaths at Jaipur Golden Hospital had happened because of oxygen shortage. Later, health minister Satyendar Jain said that it was a “preliminary report”.

In June, the Delhi government proposed another expert committee to ascertain number of deaths caused by oxygen shortage in the Capital during the last wave of the pandemic but Baijal did not approve it.

On July 20, the central government told the Parliament that states recorded no deaths caused by oxygen shortage during the Covid-19 pandemic. With that, the AAP government in Delhi, revived its demand for setting up its own expert committee on the matter.

On August 16, Sisodia sent a file to Baijal’s office for the second time seeking approval for setting up the expert panel and sought Union home minister Amit Shah’s intervention in the matter. But, LG rejected the demand again.

At its peak, Delhi recorded around 28,300 cases in a day and a positivity rate exceeding 36% on April 20 and 22 respectively. Around that time, at least 31 people are believed to have died because of oxygen shortage in two separate incidents in two separate hospitals – Jaipur Golden and Batra hospitals.