According to the committee constituted for the Oxygen Audit of Delhi, the demand for oxygen placed by the Delhi government between April 25 and May 10 can be up to 4 times more than the actual requirement during the second wave of Coronavirus pandemic. The matter is to be heard in the Supreme Court on June 30.
Delhi needed only 289 metric tonnes of oxygen, as per the calculation done on the basis of bed capacity. But the government put forth the requirement of up to 1140 metric tonnes. It was about 4 times more than the estimated requirement.
"There was a gross discrepancy (about four times) in the actual oxygen consumption claimed by the Delhi government (1,140MT) as it was about four times higher than the calculated consumption as per the formula based on bed capacity (289 MT)," said an interim report of the oxygen audit panel appointed by the Supreme Court, as per ANI.
BJP MP Gautam Gambhir took to Twitter to slam Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal over the issue as he wrote," If you have any shame left Arvind Kejriwal, hold one of your PCs now & apologise to the nation for inflating oxygen need BY FOUR TIMES during second wave!"
On May 8, the Supreme Court had formed a 12-member task force to improve the oxygen distribution system in the country. A separate sub-group was formed for Delhi which includes AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, Max Healthcare's Sandeep Budhiraja along with senior IAS officers from the Centre and Delhi each.