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Quota of oxygen raised but shortfall persists
Manish Sisodia said hospitals in Delhi are facing a major shortage for the past 4-5 days now with the demand going up significantly and states not allowing supplies from units in their jurisdictions.
The Union government on Wednesday increased Delhi’s quota of medical oxygen from 378MT to 480MT per day, even as deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia urged the Centre to ensure that allocated quantities reach the Capital on time after several trucks were held up in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
The move to increase Delhi’s quota came after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government sought at least 700MT per day in order to meet demand in hospitals that has surged due to a flood of Covid-19 patients.
“Central government has increased Delhi’s quota of oxygen. We are very grateful to the Centre for this,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet. An official of the government, who asked not to be named, later said this capacity was enhanced to 480MT a day.
“There will be still a shortfall of 220MT per day which we will have to make up for by ensuring proper demand-side management and plugging oxygen consumption wastage. In times of utmost crisis oxygen is diverted from low-demand hospitals to high-demand ones, but that is supposed to be the last resort,” this person added.
According to the updated allocation schedule, oxygen will be supplied by at least five vendors from plants in Kalinga Nagar, Panipat, Rourkela, Roorkee, West Bengal, Bhiwadi, Barotiwala, Ghaziabad, Surajpur, Kashipur, Modinagar and Selakui.
Earlier, Sisodia held a press conference and urged the centre to intervene, in particular citing incidents that took place on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon when supply trucks were held up in Uttar Pradesh’s Modinagar and Haryana’s Faridabad.
“Today, an official in Faridabad stopped some trucks from leaving for hospitals in Delhi and other regions. After interventions, these vehicles were allowed to go. Similar problem happened last night, when we had to seek the intervention of a senior Union minister to get trucks freed from a plant near Modinagar. If we have to chase every single truck and ask Centre to intervene, then it’s not a good situation,” Sisodia said, saying the crisis should not turn into “a fight between states”.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan indicated the government had intervened, saying during the weekly press briefing of the central government on Wednesday: “When you deal with such a huge challenge, at times there is panic and confusion. The onus and responsibility is on the Union and state governments to work together and respond quickly,” he said.
Sisodia said hospitals in Delhi are facing a major shortage for the past 4-5 days now with the demand going up significantly and states not allowing supplies from units in their jurisdictions.
The Haryana government denied allegations that it was not allowing vendors to supply oxygen to other states and refuted Sisodia’s statements. ‘’No supply has been stopped to Delhi, this is not true,’’ Haryana’s chief secretary said.
Faridabad deputy commissioner Garima Mittal, who was named by some hospitals for having impeded the supplies, denied the allegations. Officials in UP did not respond to requests for comment, but an official claimed that no trucks were halted.
