MUMBAI: Maharashtra Well being Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday mentioned the state authorities by no means reported any dying as a result of scarcity of oxygen throughout the second wave of COVID-19.
Notably, in April this 12 months, 22 sufferers died after the oxygen provide was disrupted at a Nashik hospital as a result of leakage in an oxygen storage plant, native officers had mentioned. Tope had then mentioned an intensive probe can be performed to search out out if negligence led to the leakage of oxygen on the hospital.
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On Tuesday, the Union authorities had informed the Rajya Sabha that no deaths as a result of lack of oxygen had been particularly reported by states and UTs throughout the second COVID-19 wave, drawing sharp criticism from opposition leaders.
When requested by a TV channel concerning the Centre’s assertion, Tope mentioned, “We by no means mentioned folks died as a result of oxygen scarcity within the state. A lot of them had points like co-morbidities and different sicknesses. No dying has taken place because of the scarcity of oxygen.”
Earlier within the day, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, whose get together shares energy with the NCP and Congress in Maharashtra, mentioned folks whose family members died as a result of oxygen scarcity ought to “take the Union authorities to courtroom”.
Noting that opposition-ruled states claimed in courts that there was no dying as a result of scarcity of oxygen throughout the second COVID-19 wave and made related assertions of their response to the Centre, the BJP on Wednesday hit again at its rivals amid a row over the Modi authorities’s reply in Parliament on the matter.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra famous that the central authorities’s reply was based mostly on the figures offered by states and UTs as well being is a state topic.
No state despatched any information about sufferers dying as a result of oxygen scarcity, he asserted.
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He mentioned the Maharashtra authorities additionally informed the Bombay Excessive Court docket that nobody died because of the oxygen scarcity and Chhattisgarh Well being Minister T S Singh Deo has additionally made related claims.
Shortly after the assertion within the Rajya Sabha was remodeled the problem in a written reply by Minister of State for Well being Bharati Pravin Pawar on Tuesday, AICC common secretary Okay C Venugopal accused the minister of getting “misled” the Home.
Describing the assertion as “condemnable”, Venugopal, a Rajya Sabha MP to whose query the reply was given, had mentioned he’ll transfer a privilege movement in opposition to the minister.
