‘Beg, borrow, steal’
During the hearing, the court said it was the Centre's responsibility to ensure no law and order situation arises and that the entire supply for Delhi reaches hospitals safely and in time. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured the court that police protection will be given to supplies.
At the hearing, the court also suggested that all industrial units be shut down if required and the oxygen be diverted to medical use. The court said: “Heavens won't fall apart. There is commercial interest and then there is human life.” But as Max got its supply restored for the night and the high court is expected to take up the matter on Thursday first thing, SOS messages from other hospitals kept pouring throughout Wednesday.
One message from Manipal Hospital CEO Pramod Alagharu said an IAS officer had “taken control over Faridabad Linde plant and is presently not allowing supplies to be sent to our Manipal Delhi Unit.” Reports of the same supplier not being able to send tankers to St Stephan's, Holy Family and Irene hospitals also came in. Interestingly, moments before the SOS messages started coming, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij had claimed that Delhi had “looted” an oxygen tanker from Haryana to supply to its hospitals and that he had ordered “police protection” for the suppliers.
What Vij was referring to was that on Tuesday too the city faced an acute oxygen shortage, with GTB Hospital's stocks lasting only for hours. At that point, its supplier INOX in Modinagar, UP alleged that they were not being allowed out of the state. After several calls to senior Union ministers, Deputy CM said he was able to get the tankers to GTB.
Significantly, both Gurugram and Noida have also now started to face oxygen shortages.
Moreover, according to sources in the Delhi government, of the increased quota of oxygen assigned to Delhi by the Centre, two suppliers will be sending 70 MT and 30 MT from Odisha and West Bengal respectively, which will take over 72 hours to reach the Capital. “And the 140 MT oxygen due on Wednesday was yet to leave from Haryana as of 8 pm,” they added.
One source said: “It's indeed unfortunate that states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are curtailing the supply of life-saving oxygen to Delhi. Just as the Haryana government, the Uttar Pradesh government has illegally captured the oxygen production plants, depriving Delhi of oxygen. What's worse is that they're indulging in this insensitive act despite clear orders from the High Court.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in an evening press conference on Wednesday said: “This morning, several Delhi hospitals ran out of oxygen because it was supposed to come from a plant in Faridabad, Haryana. However, a district official reached the plant and stopped the life-saving oxygen vehicles from entering Delhi, claiming instead that going forward, this oxygen will stay with Haryana. When the Centre decides on the issue of oxygen, no state government should have the authority to stop the supply of oxygen.”
But as the fate of almost 18,000 critical Covid patients in Delhi's hospitals hangs in the balance, Covid emergency wards in the city have completely broken down in the face of increasing cases, with patients, their kin, doctors and infrastructure, failing almost at every hospital on a daily basis and patients dying before even being examined for admission — gasping for breath.
Delhi on Wednesday reported over 24,000 new infections and 249 more deaths from the virus as active cases in the city hit 85,364.