Days after caterwauling about the deficit of medical oxygen, the Aam Aadmi Party government led by Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi has today announced, that they have access supply of the same and have offered to give the surplus oxygen to the States who need it. Interestingly, the declaration has come within days of the Supreme Court setting up a panel to carry out an audit of supply, distribution and utilisation of oxygen supply in the national capital.
ANI quoted Delhi’s Deputy CM Manish Sisodia as saying that Delhi’s oxygen need as of May 13 (Thursday) is 582 MT per day. He said that the Delhi government has written to the Centre, saying the surplus oxygen that is being given to it can be supplied to other states.
Today, after assessment of the COVID19 situation, Delhi’s oxygen need is 582 MT per day. As a responsible government, we will give the surplus oxygen to the States who need it: Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia pic.twitter.com/kgM2lhAef6
— ANI (@ANI) May 13, 2021
Sisodia claimed the national capital had a requirement of 700 MT of oxygen when the number of cases was rising but now that the figure is showing a declining trend, the requirement has come down to 582 MT.
On April 18, 2021, Kejriwal government had demanded 700 MT of oxygen.
On that day, Delhi had 74,941 active coronavirus cases. On Thursday, when Kejriwal government has said their oxygen requirement has reduced to 582 MT, active cases in Delhi stands at 82,725.
AAP Govt and its fluctuations over oxygen requirement in Delhi
Interestingly, the AAP government has been contradicting its own stance on the oxygen requirement in the national capital. For all this while, the AAP government led by Arvind Kejriwal had maintained that Delhi needs a daily supply of at least 976 MT of oxygen to emerge out of the crisis in the national capital. The party leadership have been pinning the blame on the central government for not providing them with the required 976 MT of oxygen. But after the city-state was supplied with 730 MT of oxygen, following court orders, the CM started saying that they have enough oxygen to open thousands of new oxygen beds.
And now, ever since the top court, despite strong objection from the AAP government, has appointed a panel to conduct an oxygen audit in the national capital, the Kejriwal government has straight away settled for 582 MT of oxygen per day.
It is pertinent to note here that Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, had stressed in the apex court that Delhi’s demand of 700 MT liquor medical oxygen (LMO) was also way beyond its requirement, which he suggested could be met with 500-600 MT. He had insisted in court that there must be an audit to examine whether there were any snags or pilferage in the distribution of Oxygen in Delhi.
This request was vehemently opposed by the Kejriwal government, which contended that the centre’s allocation of Oxygen to Delhi did not reflect ground realities and was mere paperwork, and if at all an audit was required, it should be of the central government’s arbitrary allocations.
Soon after the centre proposed to carry out an audit, Delhi’s Oxygen demand had magically gone down from 976 MT to 730 MT of oxygen, which now after SC’s go-ahead has further gone down to 582 MT per day.
AAP ministers and associates involved in the black marketing of oxygen
Amidst all this hullabaloo for medical oxygen, a major scam was unearthed in the national capital, wherein several AAP ministers and associates have been involved in the black marketing of medical oxygen and essential medical supplies.
In fact, today only, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Delhi pulled up the Delhi Government and Delhi Police in the case of oxygen concentrator hoarding and black-marketing over an incorrect statement made by the officer-in-charge of the case. The court pulled the Delhi Government for making an incorrect remark on the witness statement that did not exist in the case diary.