A truck carrying oxygen gas enters Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi.
The Delhi High Court on Saturday while hearing a petition on the oxygen shortage said, "its tsunami and we are calling it wave" and asked both the Centre and the state government to get prepared to overcome the crisis.
Citing the study of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, the court said that its assessment is that the peak of the Covid wave will come in mid-May. "We are calling it a wave, it is actually a tsunami," the court said.
Earlier, hearing a petition on oxygen supply, the Delhi High Court observed that it will "hang" whoever obstructs movement of oxygen.
The court said that if any official at the central, state or local administration was obstructing in the picking up or supply of oxygen, then it would "hang" that person.
The observation by a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli came during hearing of a plea by Maharaja Agrasen Hospital over shortage of oxygen for seriously-ill COVID patients.
The court told the Delhi government to give it one instance of who was obstructing the oxygen supply and said "we will hang that man".
"We will not spare anyone," the bench added.
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The court told the Delhi government to inform the Centre also about such officials of the local administration so that it could take action against them.
Senior Advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for Delhi government, told High Court whatever is going to be the intake, we will supply, however, we can not create oxygen out of thin air. High Court told Delhi government that the responsibility falls on them too, adding oxygen plant be set up by the Delhi government.
Rahul Mehra says that the entire system will collapse if we do not put the House in order.
The high court also asked the Centre when the 480 metric tonne (MT) of oxygen per day allocated for Delhi would see the light of the day.
"You (Centre) had assured us (on April 21) that 480 MT per day will reach Delhi. Tell us when will it come? The 480 MT per day is still to see the light of the day," the court said.
MHA officials inform Delhi HC that because of a high number of cases across the country there is a shortage of tankers. He also said that State governments are working very hard. Delhi and the Centre have to work together, he added.
The government of NCT should make all the possible efforts for procuring cryogenic tankers. We expect officers of both governments to coordinate in this regard, says Delhi High Court.
Court says the smooth and full allocated supply of oxygen to Delhi can resolve the many problems.
The query came after the Delhi government said it was getting only 380 MT oxygen per day over the past few days and it received only around 300 MT on Friday.
(With IANS, PTI inputs)
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