Oxygen supply: Apex court sets up a task force

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has set up a 12-member National Task Force to assess the availability and distribution of medical oxygen -- on scientific, rational and equitable basis -- as India battles its worst wave of Covid-19 infections that have overwhelmed health care facilities across the country.

The top court made the direction while hearing a case on the oxygen crisis in the national capital earlier this week.

Several states – including Delhi, West Bengal and Karnataka – have appealed the central government in recent days that their allocation of oxygen prepared by the Centre was inadequate due to the surge in infections. At the previous hearing, the bench of justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah also told the Centre that its formula for calculating allocation to states was flawed as it only took into account beds at hospitals and medical facilities, and did not calculate those patients self-isolating at home and ambulances.

The panel will be led by Dr Bhabatosh Biswas, the former vice chancellor of the West Bengal University of Health Sciences and will include Dr Naresh Trehan, chairperson of Gurgaon’s Medanta Hospital, Dr Gagandeep Kang of the Christian Medical College, Vellore, and doctors from Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital among others.