Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked all chief ministers in the country to provide oxygen to Delhi if they have it in spare. The Chief Minister said though the Centre is helping them, the severity of corona is such that all available resources are proving inadequate.
"I am writing to all CMs requesting them to provide oxygen to Delhi, if they have spare. Though Central govt. is also helping us, the severity of corona is such that all available resources are proving inadequate."
A while ago, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that Delhi has been alloted more than its Oxygen quota, therefore, the responsibility to rationalise it lies with the government | READ MORE
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Earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court asked the Centre and the Delhi government to coordinate on the issue of making available medical oxygen to hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, observing that citizens cannot be left to die.
The court made it clear that the efforts which Delhi government has to make in this regard cannot be trivialised and they should not leave it entirely to the central government.
"The Delhi government should, therefore, make all out efforts for procurement of cryogenic tankers from whatever source they can be made available, and look for all possible avenues. As aforesaid, the sub-Group in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) shall also help in this regard, and we expect the officers of both the governments to interact and co-ordinate in this regard," a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said.
The bench, which conducted a special hearing that lasted three hours on the issue of escalating oxygen crisis in various hospitals in Delhi, observed, the citizens of Delhi "cannot be allowed to die like this because enough oxygen is not coming".
During the hearing earlier in the day, a senior central government officer submitted that the Delhi government was expecting the Centre to serve everything on platter and the state's officers will have to do some work on their own, like other states are doing.
The high court also directed all the suppliers and re-fillers of oxygen to give complete details to the AAP government about the oxygen supplied by them to various hospitals treating COVID-19 patients here, observing that there has to be "transparency" on this aspect.
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