India is ordering oxygen tankers from abroad on a purchase or hiring basis, the Health Ministry said as the country is facing an acute shortage of oxygen supply amid a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Meanwhile in this moment of crisis certain claims are taking tours of the internet, recently, a claim that the Maharashtra and Delhi state CM’s received help funds from the centre for establishing new oxygen plants, but they had only 1 installed.
As Delhi is battling now with an acute shortage of oxygen, the Centre and the Kejriwal government are in a quarrelsome pickle with each other regarding the setting up of oxygen plants, which had been sanctioned under the PM-CARES Fund (Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund) last year. Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut took to social media to share a graphic, questioning where were the funds “allocated” by the Centre to state governments to put up oxygen plants. It notes that only one oxygen plant has been set up in Delhi and Maharashtra, each.
Although the viral claim is misleading because, PM CARES did not allot money to the states. In January, PM CARES allotted money – specifically ₹201.58 crores for the installation of 162 dedicated Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants to the CMSS, a central government body. The CMSS was responsible for evaluating and selecting vendors, fixing the price, and ensuring the selected vendors delivered the goods. And, The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare listed out the data on how many plants have been installed. In a series of tweets, the ministry showed that out of 162 plants sanctioned, only 33 have been installed as of April 18, 2021. Of these 33, one was installed in Delhi and one in Maharashtra. States like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh also got one each. Himachal Pradesh got four and Madhya Pradesh got five.
The ministry also states that it plans to take the number of plants installed to 59 by the end of April 2021, and to 80 by the end of May 2021.
Congress’s spokesperson in Maharashtra Sachin Swant said “Maharashtra did not get a single penny to build, install or run these plants. The state had nothing at all to do with it, except give a list of government hospitals to the Centre where the plants could come up.” AAP has also clarified that they have received no such funds for the plant; calling it a ‘false narrative’ by the central government and using it to fire political salvos back at them. The Delhi government, in a statement, said that the oxygen plants were to be set up by Union Health Ministry through PM CARES fund, and “not a single rupee” was given to state governments. “All these plants were supposed to be installed by December 2020 and handed over to state governments. However, the central government gave the contract of 140 of these plants to one single vendor who ran away,” the statement added. “The fact that the PSA plant has not been made operational at even Centre’s own Safdarjung hospital shows that the Centre is caught in a web of lies,” said the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government in Delhi. On Saturday, 24 April, the Delhi High Court directed the state government to set up its own oxygen plants to ensure supply to hospitals.
