PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah monitoring Oxygen supply, Govt tells Apex Court

SC had asked the Centre for a response on various areas of the Covid crisis like beds, essential drugs, oxygen supplies and vaccines

Modi-Shah directly monitoring oxygen supply , Centre tells SC: Shutterstock

TT Bureau   |   New Delhi   |  27.04.21: The Centre while submitting an affidavit highlighting the Covid situation of the country mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are directly monitoring oxygen supply across the country.

“The Central Government, with active and constant supervision and direct involvement of the Hon'ble Prime Minister and the Hon'ble Home Minister, is augmenting the oxygen supply on a war footing evolving and implementing innovative measures,” read the government’s 201-page affidavit.

It further stated, “Resultantly, more and more medical oxygen is generated and is being made available every day, keeping in mind not just existing requirements but potential future requirements. It is submitted that these efforts include augmenting oxygen supply from all available sources within India and also importing oxygen from other countries using not only the diplomatic channels but also personal intervention of the political executive.”

The Supreme Court had earlier asked the government for a detailed response on various aspects of the Covid crisis engulfing the country such as the supply of oxygen, beds, essential drugs like Remdesivir and vaccines. Taking into account that many High Courts were hearing petitions related crunch in critical supplies across India, the Apex Court had last week taken up the case on its own.

The centre’s affidavit filed in response, indicated that “robust interactive mechanism” was in place with senior official working on the supply of oxygen on real-time basis.

It also mentioned about a series of high-level meetings being conducted by PM Modi to make the country respond to the second wave of the pandemic.

The document also mentioned that on February 21, the Union Health Ministry had written to the states and Union Territories that has witnessed a spike in Covid cases to put “immediate requisite public health interventions”.

The Union ministry for home affairs also in the affidavit mentioned that the unprecedented surge in the number of Covid-19 cases had created the crisis due to “limitation in resources” and that such resources need to be “professionally augmented and utilised.”

Also while talking to PTI, the government said, “It is also pertinent to note that the medical oxygen in any country cannot be unlimited. While the government started all out efforts to augment oxygen resources and procure more and more oxygen from all available sources, these supplies available at any given time in the country are to be distributed to all the states, especially those which are critically burdened with high number of active COVID cases, in a balanced manner.”