Rajasthan govt alleges discrimination in oxygen, Remdesivir supply, urges Centre to allocate proportionately

The Rajasthan government has said that other states, where active cases are much lesser, have been allocated and distributed more oxygen and Remdesivir by the Centre than Rajasthan.

The government said that the liquid medical oxygen allocated to the state is not adequate and appealed to the Centre that oxygen should be allocated in proportion to the number of active Covid-19 cases in various states.

“In several states where active cases are less, more liquid oxygen and Remdesivir have been allocated as compared to Rajasthan. The cabinet has appealed to the Centre that all states be allocated oxygen and Remdesivir in proportion to active cases,” tweeted Gehlot after a cabinet meeting on Thursday night.

बैठक में बताया गया कि राजस्थान को 21 अप्रेल, 2021 को तात्कालिक आवंटन में मात्र 26 हजार 500 रेमडेसिविर इंजेक्शन आवंटित किए गए, जबकि गुजरात एवं मध्यप्रदेश को राजस्थान से कम एक्टिव केसेज होने के बावजूद क्रमशः 1 लाख 63 हजार तथा 92 हजार 200 रेमडेसिविर इंजेक्शन आवंटित किया गए हैं।
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— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) April 22, 2021

Gehlot added that if a percentage of active cases and allocation is calculated, then Rajasthan has been distributed only 27.5 per cent injections while states such as Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have been distributed 194 and 112 per cent injections.

In the cabinet meeting on Thursday, it was discussed that Rajasthan was distributed only 26,500 Remdesivir injections on April 21 as part of immediate distribution while Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were distributed 1.63 lakh and 92,200 Remdesivir injections respectively despite both the states having less numbers of active cases as compared to Rajasthan.

The state government also released figures for oxygen allocation by the Centre to a list of 13 states and Union Territories to prove its point.

According to the data released by the Rajasthan government, as compared to the other 12 states and Union Territories which included Gujarat, Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, Rajasthan have the lowest oxygen allocation per active case.

The data revealed that Rajasthan has been allocated 205 metric tonne of oxygen which stands to 1.64 cubic meter per active case, when calculated with the 96,366 active cases in the state, which was the figure of active cases till April 21.

As compared to Rajasthan, the data released by the government shows that Gujarat, with active cases of 84,126 was allocated 975 MT oxygen, which is 544.15 per cent higher than Rajasthan. The data reveals that other Congress-ruled states such as Punjab too have more oxygen allocation per active case with 2.69 cubic meter.

On April 21, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had announced on Twitter that the Centre had increased the oxygen quota for Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, UP, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi.