New Delhi: Amid reports of shortage of oxygen supply for Covid-19 patients across several states, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed that Delhi’s quota of medical oxygen has been reduced and diverted to other states. He pointed out that Delhi is facing an ‘acute shortage of oxygen’.  “In view of sharply increasing cases, Delhi 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,” tweeted CM. He also expressed his concern in a letter to Union minister Piyush Goyal and urged him to ensure an “uninterrupted” supply of 700MT of oxygen on daily basis and restore the supply of 140MT of oxygen by a supplier INOX.

The output of INOX, one of the major suppliers to Delhi hospitals, has been “diverted” to other states which has already started causing “critical shortages”, he charged in the letter. However, his claims were dismissed by a senior official in the Commerce Ministry. Speaking to PTI, the official said that allegations made by the Delhi CM are “blatant lies”.

As per the official figures, Delhi hospitals received 254 MT of medical oxygen on April 16 and 612 MT on April 17. As of April 17, the daily demand of oxygen from Delhi was 197 MT. The total stock at INOX and Goyal Gas, Linde, Air Liquide for Delhi is 311 MT and the total stock position of oxygen in the capital is 700 MT.

“The demand for oxygen is mapped dynamically and is not a static number. Every state has to have demand management, otherwise, the entire system will collapse,” he said.

Notably, several states including COVID-hit Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh have been flagging the issue of shortage of oxygen amid an increase in demand for it with a surge in infections. If reports are to be believed, people, at several places, are being forced to purchase oxygen at black market rates.