NEW DELHI: Trying to move on from the recent controversy over a Supreme Court-appointed panel report on Delhi’s oxygen demands during the recent Covid-19 resurgence, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal urged everyone on Saturday to work together to ensure there was no oxygen shortage if the city got hit by another Covid wave.
“May we work now if your fight over oxygen is over?” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
“Let us together create a system so that no one faces oxygen shortage during the third Covid wave.
People faced an acute oxygen shortage in the second wave.
It should not be repeated in the third wave.
Corona will win if we fight with each other.
The nation will win if we fight together.” A day earlier, AAP and BJP wrangled over the audit report that apparently said Delhi government had exaggerated the oxygen requirements during the recent Covid crisis.
AAP leaders accused BJP of misusing the report for political gains, saying it was neither signed nor approved by the Supreme Court’s oxygen audit committee.
BJP, on its part, charged Delhi government with creating an artificial oxygen scarcity in the city.
Deputy CM Manish Sisodia asked whether those crying for oxygen during the scarcity were untruthful, though leader of the opposition in Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri asked the CM to resign for the “oxygen mismanagement”.
Meanwhile, Delhi government clarified that the demand for 700 metric tonnes of oxygen was calculated on the basis of central government and Indian Council for Medical Research, taking into account a consumption of 24 litre per minute for ICU beds and 10 for non-ICU beds.
On Saturday, Sisodia again hit out at BJP, repeating his earlier Bhartiya Jhagda Party jibe.
“They aren’t bothered about oxygen or third wave.
They might well be busy in elections in some states when the third wave strikes, only to fight with some states after the polls,” Sisodia remarked in a tweet in Hindi.
Retorting, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said the problem with Aam Aadmi Party was that it refuses to be accountable.
Since the report came into the public domain, he alleged, AAP had been raising irrelevant issues to avoid giving a proper clarification on Delhi’s oxygen requirements.
Bidhuri led a protest by BJP workers on the issue on Saturday in front of Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in east Delhi.
They burnt an effigy of the CM and blamed him for the deaths due to the shortage of oxygen.
“AAP leaders artificially created a ruckus over oxygen shortage to defame the Narendra Modi government,” Bidhuri maintained.
Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta also announced that the party would launch mass protests against Delhi government if the chief minister did not apologise for “mismanagement of oxygen” during the recent crisis.
Let’s join hands to avoid any oxygen shortage: Delhi CM
