HC ultimatum on Delhi O2 crisis: ‘Lives at stake’
NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Tuesday put the Union government on notice for contempt of court after taking a strong view of the continuing oxygen crisis in the Capital, which was seeking at least 700 metric tonne (MT) in a day but has been making do with far lower quantities that, coupled with the Delhi government’s inability to transport oxygen, has pushed hospitals to the brink of a catastrophe.
The city was set to receive at least 550 MT of supplies by the end of Wednesday, including two deliveries through “oxygen express” trains – one of these arrived in the morning with 205 MT and another was expected with 244 MT later in the day.
But these quantities were still lower than the 700 MT projected demand, which the Supreme Court said must be met when it issued final orders on Sunday.
On Wednesday, the high court pulled up the Union government for the continuing deficit. “We are not going to take no for an answer. There is no way that you won’t supply 700 right away. We won’t hear anything except compliance,” the judges, justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli, told the Centre’s lawyer, additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma.
In its order, the bench issued a show-cause notice for why contempt proceedings shouldn’t be initiated against the Union government and sought the presence of Piyush Goyal, additional secretary, ministry of home affairs, and Sumita Dawra, additional secretary, to be present during the next hearing on
Wednesday. “Enough is enough. We mean business and give it by whatever means. ….We had said that contempt action against the officers will be the last thing on our mind. But that does not mean we cannot do it. That option still remains. Your offihe cers will face the notice. We are not going to take this.”
The most amount of medical oxygen Delhi has received in a day was on Saturday after the high court first warned of contempt proceedings. From 454 MT that day, the number marginally dipped over the next two days, leaving smaller hospitals that rely on more ad-hoc arrangements struggling for supplies.
“On May 3 we received 433 MT oxygen against a demand of 976 MT oxygen – which is roughly 44% of the total demand. Over the past one week, Delhi received around 393 MT oxygen per day on an average – which is around 40% of the total demand. This oxygen deficit is leading to distress situation in hospitals across the city. We have put in place an effective management system to deal with distress calls from hospitals,” said Delhi MLA Raghav Chadha, who is currently in charge of the oxygen SOS management system in Delhi. A Delhi government statement later said it expects supplies to improve. “Today the oxygen supply should touch 450 MT and by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, the supply should be in the range of 500 MT... The Delhi government is working on strengthening supply chain management of oxygen,” said the statement.
Hospitals have said that they are running at reduced bed strength in order to ration whatever oxygen they get among their existing patients, and most still face a tense wait for replenishments that often with only hours or minutes to spare.
“We got the supply in the nick of time. We are always in a crisis like situation – our requirement is around 4.8MT, the government allocated us 3.9MT, and we have been getting around 1.83MT,” said Indian Spinal Injuries Centre’s general manager of marketing, Jasleen Kaur.
At the court, the Union government and the Delhi government continued to spar over the crisis – with the ASG disputing the specifics of what the Supreme Court ordered.
During one particular exchange, senior advocate Rahul Merha, who represented Delhi, said: “590 is what you have to deliver. With 420, citizens are dying”. To this, the ASG replied: “Let’s not get into rhetoric.”
This particular exchange drew in a sharp remark from the judges. “This is not rhetoric. Is it not a fact? Sorry Mr Sharma. You may be blind, we are not. How can you be so insensitive? There are lives at stake,” the judges said. “…the Centre will quibble on these little things and let the people die by not supplying the oxygen. Mr Mehra is not saying this, we are telling you this. Are you living in ivory towers? You can put your head in the sand like an ostrich, we will not,” the judges added. “We are facing the grim reality everyday of people not able to secure oxygen beds, even ICU beds. Situation has come to this that hospitals have had to reduce beds offered by them because they are not able to service due to shortage of oxygen,” the bench said.
The ASG disputed the 700 MT figure as what has been ordered by the SC, but the high court did not accept the contention. “We reject the submission that the Delhi government is not entitled to receive 700 MT per day in light of the present medical infrastructure... Even 590 MTs per day has not been delivered for a single day,” said the judges, while going on to point to specific parts of the order.
In hearings that took place last week, the HC also pulled up the Delhi government for not preparing for the crisis by arranging for adequate number of cryogenic tankers, which emerged as one of the bottlenecks in expediting supplies.