Covid-19: SC panel indicts Kejriwal Government for ‘inflating’ oxygen requirement

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 25

A Supreme Court-appointed panel has indicted the Delhi Government for allegedly inflating the oxygen requirement of the National Capital by four times during peak of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, adversely affecting oxygen supply in 12 states.

Also read: Delhi govt, BJP spar over Supreme Court panel report on oxygen utilisation

The panel —a sub-group set up by the top court on May 6 to audit oxygen consumption in Delhi hospitals during the second wave of the pandemic—concluded that the Arvind Kejriwal government “exaggerated” oxygen consumption and made a claim of 1140 MT—four times higher than the formula for bed capacity requirement of 289 MT.

In its interim report to the top court, the five-member panel led by AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria said, “There was a gross discrepancy (about four times). The actual oxygen consumption claimed by the Delhi government (1,140MT) was about four times higher than the calculated consumption as per the formula based on bed capacity (289 MT).”

During the meetings of the sub-group, it was repeatedly noted that there was a “gross discrepancy” in the data recorded from proformas, it said, adding the Delhi government made claims for allocation of 700 MT oxygen on April 30 of medical grade Oxygen using a “wrong formula”.

Overruling the Centre’s contention that experts have pegged Delhi’s requirement at 415 MT oxygen, a Bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud had on May 5, ordered the Centre to maintain supply of 700 MT of oxygen to Delhi which had sought 900 MT oxygen for peak caseload of 95,000 patients on May 3. The Delhi High Court too had pulled up the Centre on the issue.

The panel prepared its report after analysing oxygen consumption data received from 183 hospitals on three parameters -- actual consumption, requirement as per Centre’s formula and requirement as per Delhi’s formula.

The Delhi Government had claimed that the oxygen requirement in 183 hospitals was 1,140 MT, but as per information received from the hospital, the actual oxygen consumption was only 209 MT, it noted.

If the Centre-recommended formula for oxygen allotment was adopted, the requirement would have been 289 MT and 391 MT as per the Delhi government formula, it stated.

The panel said tankers in Delhi were not able to off-load oxygen and were lying idle as Oxygen tanks in various hospitals were completely filled.

Four model hospitals in Delhi—Singhal Hospital, Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital, ESIC Model Hospital and Liferay Hospital—claimed extremely high Oxygen consumption with very few beds and the claims appeared to be clearly “erroneous, leading to extremely skewed information and significantly higher Oxygen requirement for entire state of Delhi”, it pointed out.

Some hospitals could not differentiate between KL (Kilo Litre) and MT (Metric Tonne) and the same was not examined while projecting 700 MTs”, it said.

The report said Controller of Explosives, PESO has informed that Oxygen supply to Delhi and Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) tankers level are being monitored on daily basis and as per 8am report on May 13, most of the LMO tanks were filled with more than 75 per cent, while few tanks are completely filled.

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