Delhi getting enough O2, says Centre, raises quota mins later

New Delhi: Despite being able to meet less than 40 per cent of the 976 MT daily requirement of oxygen in Delhi, the Central government once again claimed in the Delhi High Court that the Delhi government "is getting more than 400MT" and that "we think that is enough".

Delhi has seen at least 32 people die across two hospitals that ran out of oxygen, just in the last 10 days.

The bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli were, however, quick to shut down the Centre's attempts to deflect responsibility, saying: "No No Mr Mahajan. Yesterday Mr (Tushar) Mehta [Solicitor-General of India] also said the same. We turned him down too. Lives are being lost."

But even as the Centre continued to claim that oxygen supplies to the Capital were "enough", it was revealed during court proceedings that it had decided to increase the allocation to Delhi from 490MT to 590MT. This was later confirmed by government officials after the hearing.

But even as the Delhi government brought up the issue of why the Centre was refusing to increase its allocation to the required 1,000MT, the high court said it would consider it today (Sunday).