After Telangana High Court's rap, PM Modi increases critical supplies to state

HYDERABAD: A day after the High Court directed the State government to allow ambulances from other States and provide treatment to all Covid-19 patients, Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervened and directed Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to increase the supplies of oxygen and Remdesivir injections to Telangana, enabling the State to cope up with the situation.

Accordingly, the State will get 10,500 Remdesivir injections daily from Monday onwards. Railway Minister Goyal informed this to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao over the phone on Saturday night. At present, the State only gets 5,500 Remdesivir injections per day.

Goyal informed the Chief Minister that the Central government had decided to increase the supply of injections. He also informed Rao that the State would get an additional 200 tonnes of medical oxygen too. 

Oxygen would be supplied to the State from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, Angul in Odisha and Durgapur in West Bengal, Piyush Goyal said. The Union Minister wanted Rao to coordinate with authorities concerned on the transportation of oxygen to the State. 

Goyal also responded positively to the State’s request for more Covid-19 vaccine doses. Goyal wanted Rao to give preference to administration of second dose, to which the Chief Minister replied that Telangana was doing the same thing.

Goyal told Chandrasekhar Rao that the Prime Minister had instructed him (Goyal) to supply the required medical oxygen, Remdesivir injections and vaccines to the State. 

Modi took this decision against the backdrop of the Telangana High Court’s direction that the Telangana government should provide treatment to all the Covid-19 patients, which increased the burden on the State. 

Patients from four States are admitted in various hospitals in the State. Of the total Covid patients in the State, over 40 per cent are from other States.