Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 22: After a shameful dogfight between the governments of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana over share of oxygen, the union home ministry on Thursday stepped in invoking the Disaster Management Act to ensure uninterrupted inter-state and intra-state movements of oxygen-carrying vehicles all over the country.
The centre’s intervention came as India raced on to record the world’s highest daily spike with 3.15 lakh new Covid cases and a record 2,104 deaths in the last 24 hours till Thursday morning and the inter-governmental clashes over share of oxygen, injections, vaccines and all other life-saving equipment leading to the Delhi High Court’s stinging remarks, “As it stands, we all know this country is being run by God,” a simple English translation of the popular Hindi adage “Ram Bharose” that no government likes to hear.
Invoking the disaster management act, the centre made the concerned district magistrates and senior superintendents of police personally liable to ensure unhindered movements of the oxygen vehicles within no one allowed to restrict the life-saving air within the producing state as was widely alleged against each other by the governments of Delhi, Haryana and UP on Wednesday.
Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had alleged that the governments of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were blocking the supply of oxygen to Delhi. Delhi procures medical oxygen from neighbouring districts in these States, while Haryana and UP governments accused the Delhi government of “looting” oxygen vehicles meant for these states.
The Union Home Secretary is the Chairman of the National Executive Committee under the DM Act, 2005. The 2005 legislation was invoked for the first time in March 2020 to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic after it came into being in wake of the Tsunami disaster.
The order said, “No restriction shall be imposed on the movement of medical oxygen between the States and transport authorities shall be instructed to accordingly allow free inter-State movement of oxygen carrying vehicles; No restrictions shall be imposed on oxygen manufacturers and suppliers to limit the oxygen supplies only to the hospitals of the State/ UT in which they are located.”
The order added that there shall be free movement of oxygen carrying vehicles into the cities, without any restriction of timings, while also enabling inter-city supply without any restriction and “no authority shall attach the oxygen carrying vehicles passing through the district or areas for making supplies specific to any particular district(s) or area.” The centre under the act also prohibited industrial use of oxygen except those units exempted by the government.
It asked the States and Union Territories that they strictly abide by the supply plan of medical oxygen prepared by Empowered Group-II and as revised from time-to-time.
“EG-II in consultation with States/UTs and oxygen manufactures etc., prepares supply plan, which is required to be followed by all States/UTs and all the agencies concerned,” it said,
The oxygen supply plan was circulated by Health Ministry to all the States on Wednesday.
As the country continued to grapple with the current wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court also stepped in taking suo motu cognisance of the prevailing grim situation and said it wanted a “national plan” on issues, including supply of oxygen and essential drugs for treatment of patients infected with the virus.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and comprising Justices L N Rao and S R Bhat said it would also consider the matter pertaining to the method and manner of COVID-19 vaccination in the country. The Bench also said it would examine the aspect relating to judicial power of the high courts to declare lockdown amid the pandemic.
It further said that at least six high courts are hearing COVID-19 related matters, leading to “confusion and diversion of resources” based on different priorities.
The apex court appointed senior advocate Harish Salve as an amicus curiae to assist it in the suo motu proceedings. The Bench issued notice to the Centre and said it would hear the matter on Friday.
The top court said at least six high courts — Delhi, Bombay, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh, Calcutta and Allahabad — are dealing with issues pertaining to the prevailing situation. It said these high courts are exercising their jurisdictions in bona fide and in the best interest.
Issuing unusually strong strictures on the Modi government and private industries, the Delhi High Court had on Wednesday ordered the Centre to “forthwith” provide oxygen by whatever means to hospitals here facing shortage of the gas in treating serious COVID-19 patients, observing it “seems human life is not important for the state.”
“You are not exploring all avenues to augment oxygen supply. Beg, borrow or steal,” the high court had told the Centre, and asked why it was not waking up to the gravity of the emergency situation. It also warned that certainly all hell will break loose with the stoppage of medical oxygen to the hospitals.
“Fact of the matter is there is an oxygen shortage. It is there for us to see. We cannot shut our eyes to it,” the high court had said during an extraordinary hearing of a plea on the matter on a public holiday, and added that the government cannot say it cannot provide more oxygen and people can be left to die on roads.
The Central government, represented by the Solicitor General, had thereafter, assured the high court that it will facilitate supply of the increased allocation of 480 metric tonnes of oxygen to Delhi and the same will reach the national capital without any obstructions.
After the High Court’s strictures, the situation in the national capital had only marginally improved with the centre raising the national capital’s oxygen quota from 378 tonnes to 480 tonnes but several hospital in Delhi again experienced acute shortage of oxygen on Thursday with many doctors expressing serious concern over saving lives of the patients if the supply was not normalized quickly.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting to review the oxygen supply across India and discussed the ways to boost its availability, according to an official statement.
The meeting was attended among others by principal secretary to the Prime Minister PK Mishra, health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, home secretary Ajay Bhalla and officials of Niti Aayog and other ministries.
During the meeting, Modi highlighted the importance to work rapidly on three aspects which are- increasing the production of oxygen, increasing its speed and distribution and utilising innovative ways to provide oxygen support to health facilities, the statement said.
The officials told the Prime Minister an elaborate exercise is being carried out in co-ordination with states in order to identify their demands of the gas and ensure supplies accordingly and how these supplies were steadily increasing. “Against the present demand from 20 states of 6,785 MT/ day of Liquid Medical Oxygen, Government of India has from Wednesday allocated 6,822 MT/ day to these states,” the statement added.
Modi also ordered the officials to make sure the oxygen supply to states happens in a smooth manner and there is a need to fix responsibility with the local administration in the case of obstruction. He stressed the fact that state governments should come down heavily on hoarding of oxygen.
The Centre is undertaking various steps to rapidly increase the availability of cyrogenic tankers through conversion of nitrogen and argon tankers, import and airlifting of tankers as well as manufacturing them, the statement said.
In a bid to restore normal relation between the states after the high-drama over oxygen share, the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday spoke to his Haryana counterpart ML Khattar on oxygen supply. Kejriwal later said he had been assured of full support. “I spoke to Hon’ble CM of Haryana Sh Manohar Lal Khattar ji. Sought his support in facilitating the transport of oxygen trucks from Haryana to Delhi. He has assured full support,” Kejriwal tweeted.
Khattar said one of the plants producing oxygen in Panipat has a capacity of 260 metric tonnes (MT). “140 MT oxygen allotted to Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal rang me up today and the matter has been resolved,” the Haryana chief minister said.
Sisodia had earlier alleged that the main reason behind the oxygen shortage crisis in Delhi was the ‘jungle raj’ by the Haryana and the UP governments. At a press conference, Sisodia alleged that despite the Centre’s increased oxygen allocation to the national capital, government officials and police of the two states were not allowing the oxygen supply to leave for Delhi.
He had made a similar charge on Wednesday too, which was rejected by the Haryana government.
“No supply has been stopped to Delhi, this is not true,” Haryana’s Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan told the media. Faridabad deputy commissioner Garima Mittal also denied allegations that oxygen supply to Delhi had been stopped from a plant in Faridabad.
The second wave of the Covid-19 outbreak has sparked shortages of hospital beds and other crucial supplies such as oxygen and medicines. Oxygen is a critical medical intervention against Covid-19, which causes respiratory distress in some cases. The pandemic has accelerated the global demand for it. The need for oxygen has increased to 1.1 million cylinders in low to middle-income countries alone, according to the World Health Organisation.