Top court orders India’s govt to present oxygen plan
India’s government, facing calls for a strict lockdown to slow a devastating surge in coronavirus infections, was ordered by the Supreme Court yesterday to submit a plan to meet New Delhi hospitals’ oxygen needs within a day.
The court decided against immediately punishing officials for failing to end a 2-week-old erratic supply of oxygen to overstretched hospitals.
“Ultimately putting officers in jail or hauling officers for contempt will not bring oxygen. Please tell us steps to solve this,” Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud said.
The court stayed a contempt notice earlier issued to the government by the New Delhi High Court for defying its order to supply adequate oxygen to more than 40 New Delhi hospitals. The government officials found guilty could have faced six months in prison and a fine.
With 382,315 new confirmed cases yesterday, India’s tally has risen to more than 20.6 million since the pandemic began. The Health Ministry also reported 3780 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 226,188. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.
On Wednesday, the New Delhi High Court court, which had summoned two Home Ministry officials for a hearing yesterday, said the grim reality is that hospitals are reducing the number of beds and asking patients to move elsewhere. The court is hearing petitions filed by several hospitals and nursing homes struggling with irregular oxygen supplies.
“You can put your head in the sand like an ostrich, we will not. We are not going to take no for an answer,” Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said.
Raghav Chaddha, a spokesman for the Aam Aadmi Party governing New Delhi, said hospitals were getting only 40 per cent of their 700 tonne daily needs through the federal government, and the local government was arranging additional supplies to meet the shortfall and setting up new oxygen plants.
A massive wave of infections since April has pushed India’s health care system to the brink, with people begging for oxygen cylinders and hospital beds on social media and news channels.
Bodies have been piling up at cremation grounds and in graveyards with relatives waiting for hours for last rites.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is reluctant to impose a national lockdown for fear of the economic fallout. But nearly a dozen states have imposed curbs on their own. The most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, with 200 million people, implemented a five-day lockdown this week. The country’s second and third most populated states of Maharashtra and Bihar are also under lockdowns with varying curbs.