Delhi 'special responsibility' of Centre, SC says on oxygen supply

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to meet the enhanced demand of 700 MT of oxygen in the national capital to treat the Covid-19 patients, saying Delhi is a special responsiblity of the Union government.

"Delhi represents the nation and there is hardly any ethnically Delhite. Forget about someone (Delhi) could not lift the oxygen, you have to push through since you have to save lives. you have a special responsibility as the Centre," a bench presided over by Justice D Y Chandrachud told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

At the same time, the bench also told the Delhi government's counsel, senior advocate Rahul Mehra, who complained of shortage in supply that it was not the time for political bickering.

"We need to send a message to the highest levels of your government that in this humanitarian crisis, we don't want lives to be lost in political bickering. Politics can be during elections and interact with the Centre," the bench told him.

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While hearing the Suo Motu matter, the bench, also comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat, said they heard citizens crying for oxygen cylinders. "Delhi is a non-industrial state like Goa, Uttarakhand and everybody cannot be on same board. The Centre had to provide tankers for it," the court said.

"Ground situation in Delhi is oxygen is not really available. Same is the case in Gujarat, and Maharashtra, you have to tell us in the foreseeable future what difference will be there from today and next day of hearing," the bench asked Mehta.

The court said its hearing of the Suo Motu matter must make a difference to the lives of the people.

Maintaining that 10,000 MT of oxygen was available, Mehta, for his part, said no country could have expected a demand of this magnitude. He pointed out the issue of quantity allotted to Delhi, was debated in the Delhi High Court.

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"Difficulty is that centre has pulled whatever it can extract from whatever source possible for oxygen. Transportation logistics can be handled at state level," he said.

Many states have handled the logistics very effectively. As per realistic estimate, Delhi has got 400 MT of oxygen, but they are not able to lift the quantity. It could be due to shortage of cryogenic tankers. More and more tankers will ease the problem, he said, adding that the Centre was providing help in this regard.

He also said there is a virtual control room that is working 24x7 and any state can contact it for oxygen in case a need arises.

Additional Secretary, Sumita Dawra, who herself was Covid positive, made a presentation before the court, stating in an unprecedented crisis, the situation remained dynamic. Around 6000 MT oxygen was manufactured in August 2020 which has been raised to 9000 MT, with efforts on to raise it to 15,000 MT.