Oxygen Shortage Case: Supreme Court gives Centre a deadline for "comprehensive plan"
New Delhi : Supreme Court on Wednesday claimed that both the state and central government are working hard to meet the demands of oxygen amid surge in coronavirus cases. The apex court said it is pointless to jail officials for contempt as the on-ground situation is critical. The top court, however, directed the Centre to place before it by tomorrow morning a "comprehensive plan" to ensure that Delhi received its quota of 700 metric tonnes of oxygen.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah recommended that Delhi must take note from the Mumbai model and maintain the supply of medical oxygen in the hospitals.
"Between the Centre and State putting officers in jail or hauling them up for contempt, the people of Delhi won't get oxygen," the Supreme Court said, hearing the Centre's plea against the contempt charges.
"We direct that by 10.30 am tomorrow, the Centre shall place a comprehensive plan in the form of a chart, indicating the manner in which the direction for allocation of 700 metric tonnes shall be complied with," the court said, adding that it was answerable to the citizens of Delhi. "We do not want contempt proceedings. We want action on the ground," the court said.
The Centre, however, told the court that Delhi can manage with 500 tonnes of oxygen to which the court disagreed and said that its own order was of 700 tonnes and now it is not possible to manage ground situation with 500 tonnes.
The Centre told the court that both the state and Union governments were "doing their best".
"We are in the process of going to 700 metric tonnes of Oxygen...on May 4 we could reach 585 tonnes," it said. Up to 590 tonnes of the vital gas were allotted to Delhi.
The Central government representative pointed that Centre is working towards fulfilling the need and this is why despite being in a pandemic, India was able to augment its oxygen capacity from 5,000 metric tonnes, including industrial oxygen, to 9,000 tonnes now available for medical purpose.
The only question remains now is how to allocate this among the states as all of them are in deer need.
