New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to cut down the industrial use of oxygen and provide it to the hospitals in the national capital which are treating serious COVID-19 patients and are facing scarcity of oxygen.
A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said the responsibility to ensure oxygen supply is squarely on shoulders of the Centre and if necessary the entire supply of oxygen to industries, including steel and petroleum, can be diverted for medical usage, PTI reported.
“Why is the Centre not waking up to the gravity of the situation? We are shocked and dismayed hospitals running out of oxygen but steel plants are running,” the bench said while hearing a plea with regard to urgent need of oxygen in some Delhi hospitals.
The High Court said the steel and petrochemical industries are oxygen guzzlers and diverting oxygen from there can meet the requirements of the hospitals.
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“If Tatas can divert oxygen they are generating for their steel plants to medical use, why can't others? This is the height of greed. Is there no sense of humanity left or not,” the bench added.