No green corridor given to Oxygen Express, alleges Shiv Sena; CR denies allegations

Sena chief spokesperson and former Union minister Arvind Sawant slammed the Centre for its “cruel politics” over supply of oxygen, alleging that the train that left Kalamboli on April 19 night was at Akola in Maharashtra 24 hours after its departure.

The Shiv Sena on Wednesday alleged that the Railways did not provide green corridor to the Oxygen Express dispatched to bring oxygen from Visakhapatnam as Maharashtra is facing shortage of oxygen for Covid-19 patients.

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Sena chief spokesperson and former Union minister Arvind Sawant slammed the Centre for its “cruel politics” over supply of oxygen, alleging that the train that left Kalamboli on April 19 night was at Akola in Maharashtra 24 hours after its departure. He also demanded resignation of railway minister Piyush Goyal.

A passenger train journey between Mumbai’s Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and Visakhapatnam takes a little over 28 hours to complete. With a green corridor, the journey was expected to be faster. Sawant said there is “no guarantee when oxygen will reach us”.

Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Sawant said the Centre has set a precedent to indulge in politics at such a difficult time for the country. “Tankers left from Kalamboli on April 19; last night (Tuesday) at around 8.30 the train was at Akola — 24 hours after it left. Around 2-2.30am [on Wednesday] it reached around Nagpur. Later [on Wednesday evening] it was near Raipur, when it has to go to Visakhapatnam. You (Goyal) are saying green corridor is being made, but so far it has not reached there. The train has to come back as well. We do not expect it to arrive in next three days. This kind of politics is cruel... The railway minister should resign for this negligence,” Sawant said.

He further added that the government was playing with the lives of thousands of people. Sawant is expected to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking Goyal’s resignation and an inquiry into the delay to transport oxygen to Maharashtra.

While Goyal was not available for reaction, the Central Railway (CR) denied the allegations.

“The train is running as per the pre-determined route and there is no delay or change of route. The train is now running in the East Coast Railway Zone and will soon reach Visakhapatnam Steel Plant Siding. Oxygen Express is being run with priority,” said Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer, CR.

Senior railway officials also stated that the Oxygen Express, which has tankers, cannot be moved from the railway ghat (mountain pass) sections and have to be moved by railways goods section.

“The express is being given priority, but we cannot operate the train from the ghat areas like other passenger trains are operated. The train went through Vasai and will be reaching Visakhapatnam in some time. The routes were already defined. There are also particular speeds at which goods or roll-on roll-off is operated,” said a senior railway official who did not wanted to be named.

The train is likely to reach Visakapatnam at Wednesday night, after which the tankers will be moved towards the steel plant.

Sawant also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre had “stooped down” to show Maharashtra in bad light. He said, “Maharashtra chief minister put in restrictions to control the cases. For the past few days, cases in Mumbai have come down. If these restrictions are increased, cases will further decrease. But to not allow Maharashtra government to be seen as progressive and doing good work, they have stooped down to low level of politics, which is seen in the past few days in the matter of Remdesivir and vaccination. All these things are condemnable.”

Responding to the allegations, Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said there are attempts to hide state government’s failure to tackle the Covid-19 situation. “The Union government has provided all assistance the states require. This is nothing but a weak attempt to shift the blame of their failure on the Centre,” Upadhye said.