Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday said Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal has once again rejected the Delhi Government’s request for approval to set up an expert committee to investigate deaths due to shortage of oxygen during the second wave of Covid-19.
Accusing the Central Government of mismanagement, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said, “It is irrefutable that there was an oxygen crisis across several States, including Delhi, in April and May months. The matter needs to be investigated. However, the L-G has once again refused to give approval for setting up an expert committee to investigate death caused by oxygen shortage. The Centre is collecting data from States on deaths due to oxygen shortage and they are not allowing States to investigate such deaths. It only shows that the Centre is trying to run away from the issue to hide its own mismanagement, which led to the oxygen crisis in the first place.”
Pertinently, on August 16, Sisodia sent a file to Baijal’s office for the second time, seeking an approval for setting up an expert committee to probe cases of Covid-19 deaths due to lack of oxygen and seeking Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s intervention, also wrote a letter to him.
According to the Delhi Government’s heath department data on Covid-19, the national Capital recorded above 28,000 cases per day while the positivity rate was 36 per cent between April 20 and 22.
In June, the Delhi Government proposed another expert committee to ascertain the number of deaths caused by oxygen shortage in the Capital during the last wave of the pandemic but Baijal did not give approval.
On July 20, the Centre told the Parliament that States recorded no specific cases of deaths caused by oxygen shortage during the Covid-19 pandemic. With that, the AAP Government in Delhi revived its demand for setting up its own expert committee on the matter.
“It is a matter of shame that in the 21st century, the Central Government is saying that there should be no investigation into the number of people who died due to lack of oxygen in our nation. In the month of April-May, the gross mismanagement of oxygen by the Central Government, whether deliberate or unintentional, is a matter of investigation. The Central Government is fully responsible for the mismanagement of oxygen. Today, the Central Government is trying to hide the facts by avoiding investigation, but the Central Government will have to bear the responsibility of the deaths of lakhs of people who lost lives because of Central Government’s mismanagement,” Sisodia said addressing the media online.
He said,”It is clear that the L-G’s Office, under the Centre’s pressure, is trying to scuttle any probe into deaths due to oxygen shortage in Delhi. The scope of the High Level Committee constituted by the SC is only to look after oxygen supply issues in Delhi, not to probe the number or the veracity of deaths due to oxygen shortage in Delhi’s hospitals. Why is the Centre on one hand asking the Delhi Government to submit data due to oxygen deaths, and on the other hand, using the L-G’s office to stop the Delhi Government from compiling this information? Why is the Centre so desperate about hiding the truth related to deaths due to oxygen shortage in Delhi?”