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Health worker in PPE suit treating Covid-19 patients at an Isolation center in New Delhi on Saturday. Express Photo by Praveen Khanna) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Sunday flagged a “critical shortage” of medical oxygen across hospitals in a letter to Union Minister Piyush Goyal, requesting uninterrupted daily supply of 700 MT (metric tonnes) to the national capital.
Kejriwal termed the dip in availability of oxygen as an “emergency” through a tweet.
“Del facing acute shortage of oxygen. In view of sharply increasing cases, Del needs much more than normal supply. Rather than increasing supply, our normal supply has been sharply reduced and Delhi’s quota has been diverted to other states. OXYGEN HAS BECOME AN EMERGENCY IN DEL,” he tweeted.
In his letter to Goyal, Kejriwal said the output of M/S INox, a major oxygen supplier to Delhi hospitals, has been “diverted” to other states. The hospitals are not in a position to ramp up supply by signing contracts with new suppliers at this stage, he added.
Goyal holds the commerce and industries portfolio at the Centre.
“The output of M/s INOX, one of the major suppliers to various hospitals of Delhi, has been largely diverted to other states. At this critical juncture, it will not be possible for hospitals to enter into the contractual arrangements with the new suppliers who have now been assigned to Delhi. The disruption is already starting to cause critical shortage across major hospitals,” Kejriwal wrote.
Urging Goyal’s personal intervention into the issue, the CM demanded uninterrupted supply of 700MT of oxygen on a daily basis and restoration of the arrangement with INOX, which used to supply 140MT daily to the city.
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