‘Centre said no to O2 deaths panel’

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya has written to the Delhi government that it does not need to form a separate committee for probing oxygen related deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic, citing a separate committee which is already working on it.

“The central government’s fraud on deaths due to lack of oxygen has come out in the open. Union health minister is presenting false arguments to avoid investigation. He has written to us saying Delhi government does not need to set up a committee to probe deaths caused by shortage of oxygen because a high-level committee, constituted under the Supreme Court’s direction, is already working on the matter across states,” said Sisodia in a video press briefing.

Sisodia added: “By saying that there is no need for a committee to investigate deaths due to oxygen shortage as the task force and subgroup constituted by the Supreme Court is investigating it, the Union health minister is lying shamelessly. Neither the task force set up by the Supreme Court, nor the sub-group formed in the states for oxygen audit is mandated to investigate the deaths due to lack of oxygen, the task force and the subgroup are mandated with configuring allocation of oxygen supply and medicines.”

The Union health ministry did not comment on the matter.

Sisodia on August 20 said lieutenant governor (LG) Anil Baijal has once again rejected the Delhi government’s request for approval to set up an expert committee to investigate instances of deaths caused by shortage of oxygen in Delhi during the last wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in April.

Responding to Sisodia, the LG’S office said, “Neither the LG nor the government of India has said that deaths due to oxygen shortage should not be probed. What has been said earlier on July 6, and repeated on August 19 is that a high level committee constituted as per SC directions, where apart from senior and reputed doctors, the ACS (health), the government of NCT Delhi is also a member, is already looking into the matter.”

On May 4, the Delhi government told the Delhi high court that an expert committee could not ascertain whether 21 deaths at Jaipur Golden Hospital had happened because of oxygen shortage. Later, health minister Satyendar Jain said that it was a “preliminary report”. In June, the Delhi government proposed another expert committee but Baijal did not approve it. The file was re-sent on August 16, but the plan was not approved again.