On SC panel's O2 'report', Sisodia says members didn't sign, BJP prepared it

New Delhi: Even as the Central government submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court with an "interim report" alleging that the Delhi government had inflated the Capital's medical oxygen requirement during the peak of the second wave here, the AAP-led government and senior BJP leaders (some of them Union Ministers) charged at each other over whose responsibility it was that several had died waiting for oxygen in the city.

Senior BJP leaders, including spokespersons, MPs and Union Ministers blamed the Delhi government for purportedly failing to handle the oxygen crisis, alleging that this was "criminal negligence" while Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia flatly denying the existence of such a report as claimed by the BJP and that the conclusions submitted to the top court were purportedly prepared at the party's headquarters.

The report in question is of a sub-group of the National Task Force - ordered by the SC - which was constituted to audit the medical oxygen consumption in Delhi hospitals. While the report's conclusions, made public on Friday morning, were used by BJP leaders to blame the Delhi government, Dy CM Sisodia refused to accept that this report was prepared by the concerned sub-group.

Sisodia said, "It (the report) is bogus and misleading. The Bhartiya Janata Party is lying and shirking accountability."

"Upon speaking to members of this Oxygen Audit Committee, the truth came out. Members of this committee have informed the Delhi government that no such report has been approved, signed or released. When no such report has been approved by the Oxygen Audit Committee, then which report is being used by the BJP to yet again malign the Delhi Government? Where has this report come from?" Sisodia charged.

Significantly, the interim report filed by the Centre as part of its affidavit is unsigned. No signature appears at the end of the report.

And amid searing criticism from the BJP, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi, "My crime - I fought for the lives of 2 crore people of Delhi. When you were doing repeated election rallies, I was awake all night arranging for Oxygen. I fought, pleaded for people to get me oxygen. People have lost their loved ones due to the lack of oxygen. You shouldn't call them liars, they will feel really bad about it."

The sub-group concluded in their interim report that the Delhi government "exaggerated" the consumption of oxygen and made a claim of 1,140 MT, four times higher than the requirement of 289 MT, as per the Centre's formula.

The five-member panel included a Joint Secretary from the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, the Principal Home Secretary to the Delhi government, Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, Clinical Director and Director of Internal Medicine at Max Healthcare, the Controller of Explosives and AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria.

The interim report claimed that the formula used by the Delhi government to arrive at a 700MT oxygen requirement on April 30 was wrong.

The panel in its report claimed out that four model hospitals in Delhi —Singhal Ho— had claimed extremely high Oxygen consumption with very few beds and the claims appeared to be clearly erroneous, leading to extremely skewed information and significantly higher Oxygen requirement for entire state of Delhi. The report claimed that during the meetings of the sub-group, it was repeatedly noted that there was a gross discrepancy in the data recorded from proformas.

Additional secretary, Department of Promotion of Indian Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India, expressed anguish over the way the data was collated by Government of NCT Delhi, as it still has a lot of errors which have been pointed out. It is

still not clear on what basis had an

allocation of 700 MT been sought by the government of Delhi in the Supreme Court of India when

collated data had so many errors and

it took an Oxygen audit to point out

the same, the 23-page interim report said.

The report added, "It was also evident that some hospitals could not differentiate between KL (Kilo Litre) and MT (Metric Tonne) and the same was not examined while projecting 700 MTs."

The report said that Controller of Explosives, PESO has informed that Oxygen supply to Delhi and Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) tankers level are being monitored on daily basis and as per 8 am report on May 13, most of the LMO tanks were filled with more than 75 per cent, while few tanks are completely filled.

It is obvious that there is excess oxygen supply in NCT Delhi, which is further substantiated by the fact that NCT Delhi has picked up only 11 MT LMO from the Air Liquide plant at Panipat by 11 am on May 13. It was also pointed out that Delhi was unable to store all the LMO allotted to it and had asked the suppliers to hold Oxygen reserves at their own plants, the report said.

The panel further said in its report that tankers in Delhi are not able to off-load oxygen and lying idle as Oxygen tanks in various hospitals are completely filled.

After what it called detailed discussions, the sub-group concluded that the current oxygen requirement of NCT Delhi ranges from 290-400 MT of LMO. Accordingly, it is recommended that 300 MT of quota should be available for NCT of Delhi on an assured basis, the report said.

The panel said that an additional 100 MT of quota should be available for Delhi to lift from plants by 4pm of the day, after which the unutilised quota from this 100 MT should be made available for other states so that available oxygen capacity does not go unutilised. However, the Delhi government insisted that its requirement will not be met unless there is at least 500MT of oxygen supply daily. At least 32 patients across multiple hospitals in the city died due to a lack of oxygen during the last two weeks of April and the Delhi government has announced the provision for ex-gratia to the kin of those who died due to the shortage.