New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Delhi government over the oxygen gas crisis in various hospitals of the city, saying “get your house in order”.
“Get your house in order. Enough is enough. If you can’t do it, tell us, we will ask the Central govt to take over.
People are dying!,” a bench comprising of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said as quoted by LiveLaw.
During the hearing, a supplier of medical oxygen--Seth Air--said the Delhi government does not have answers for the distribution of oxygen and it led to a crisis in Maharaja Agrasen hospital here.
However, the court did not agree to the submissions of the supplier and ordered the Delhi government to take over the supplier’s plant.
But, it also came down heavily on the Delhi government. “Again we are seeing you are only doing distribution of lollipops. This man is saying he has 20 tonnes but doesn’t know who to distribute to! And you say you don’t have oxygen,” the bench stated.
“We direct the GNCTD [Delhi government] to take note and take over their unit.....We want this unit to be taken over by tomorrow. Let this be an example for others,” the court ordered.
The Court also directed the oxygen refillers to provide data on the government’s portal.
The court also pulled up the Delhi government on the issue of black marketing and hoarding of covid medicines and oxygen cylinders.
“There is hoarding going on of both medicines and oxygen. You are not doing anything.” the bench asked the Delhi government.
With the second wave of Covid-19 hitting the national capital hard and infecting thousands within days, the hospitalisation of Covid patients has increased manifold leading to the extreme shortage of bed and medical oxygen.
At least 45 Covid patients have lost their lives in two hospitals of Delhi due to an alleged shortage of medical oxygen. (UNI)