Lekha G
Taking a serious note on various petitions filed due to shortage of oxygen supply a bench comprising of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rekha Palli remarked that “We will not spare anyone,” and would not hesitate to hang anyone who is found obstructing oxygen supply.
The court asked the Centre about the preparedness to deal with the expected Covid-19 second wave peak terming the increasing cases as ‘tsunami’.
“The Centre has assured on April 21 that 480 MT per day will reach Delhi. Tell us when will it come? We want a definite date,” the bench said, adding that Covid patients in Delhi cannot be left to die like this.
In its response the Centre said that its inability to provide oxygen adequately was due to lack of cryogenic tankers for picking up liquid oxygen.
Delhi government represented by Senior advocate Rahul Mehta told the court that it was not an industrial state to have access to such tankers.
The court directed Delhi government to not entirely depend on Central government and must take steps to procure such tankers and further ordered “We direct all the suppliers to provide complete details of the oxygen that they supply in the NCT of Delhi of the hospitals to which they are supplied; the time at which they are supplied; and the quantities which they supply”.
The court also asked Delhi government to examine the national allocation plan so that the capital could get oxygen from nearby sources and the suppliers allocated to it can supply to other states.
The next hearing regarding this plea is scheduled on April 26 directing the Centre and the Delhi government to submit a report on improvement of the medical structure to deal with the pandemic.