Centre told to ensure Delhi gets its O2 quota

Anguished at the death of eight Covid-19 patients — four more deaths were reported later— at Batra Hospital in the city, the Delhi high court on Saturday gave the Centre a midnight deadline to ensure the allocation of 490 metric tonnes of medical oxygen reaches the Capital. Failing this, the court said it will initiate contempt action against the central government officials concerned.

“Water has gone above the head. Now we mean business. Enough is enough…Do you mean we will shut our eyes to people dying in Delhi?,” a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said when the Centre’s counsel said the issue of oxygen crisis is also being heard before the Supreme Court, which will make its order public next Saturday.

“We direct the central government to ensure Delhi receives its allocated supply of 490MT positively today [Saturday], by whatever means. Considering the fact that Delhi is not an industrial state, and does not have cryogenic tankers of its own, which can be requisitioned under the Disaster Management Act – like other States have done, it falls upon the central government to arrange the tankers as well...,” observed the bench.

The bench also asked the Centre to ensure they make cryogenic tankers available for the city, while noting that Delhi has not received the 490MT of oxygen that it has been allocated even once. It directed two central officers to be present on Monday, when the matter will be heard next, if the orders are not complied with.

It also declined the Centre’s request to defer the order till Monday for half-an-hour. “We have passed an order. You comply with that. That’s the end of it,” the court remarked.

The directions came after Sudhanshu Bankata, executive director of Batra Hospital, told the court that his facility ran out of oxygen for one-and-a-half hours on Saturday. He said a doctor was among the eight Covid-19 patients who died due to oxygen shortage.

He said that as the court heard the case, time was running out for other critically ill patients at the hospital.

During the proceedings, the court was also informed by senior advocate Rahul Mehra, who appeared for the Delhi government, about an SOS message from Vijay Bidhuri, a city officer, which read that the city’s oxygen reserves were exhausted.

In the message, which Mehra read aloud during the proceedings, Bidhuri said there was minimal supply from two firms — Linde and Air Liquide — on Saturday. Mehra said somebody needs to pull up the suppliers, alleging that they are diverting supply “under pressure.”

“My officers will have a nervous breakdown. Our tankers are not given priority and they keep on standing for hours and hours. We need to know what is going on behind the scenes. You are actually killing patients by not giving it,” he said.

He also informed the court that the city on Friday received only 312MT of oxygen, as against the Centre’s 490MT allocation.

Advocate Amit Mahajan, the standing counsel for the central government, said, “Whatever is coming is good enough”. The bench, however, slammed this response. “We will not hear that what is coming is good enough. [Solicitor General Tushar] Mehta had said it, and we rejected it. This is not enough”.

Mehra said the Delhi government can add more beds for Covid-19 patients, for which it will need 956MT oxygen.

The court asked Mahajan to look into the matter and said, “Sort this out. Inform your officers that Linde is not supplying.” When Mahajan said Linde has to explain, the court said, “But you made the allocation. It falls on you. You have to do it now.”

The court also asked the Centre why four cryogenic tankers that were meant for Delhi, but have been held up by the Rajasthan government, not been released despite the court’s earlier orders.

It directed the Centre to take necessary steps to fulfil the assurance from S-G Mehta on April 26 that the tankers will be released.