Amid states grappling with an oxygen supply crisis and no end in sight to the menacing spread of Covid-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with Chief Ministers of high burden states on the pandemic situation.
PM Modi's meeting with state CMs comes a day after the Supreme Court sought a national plan from the Centre on supply of oxygen, essential drugs and vaccination and called the present situation on Covid-19 "alarming" and "like a national emergency."
In his address to the nation on Tuesday, the Prime Minister has ruled out a national lockdown and asked even the states to treat this only as a "last resort" while underlining that the effort is to save economic activities and livelihood as well along with saving lives.
A number of states have given an SOS to the Centre on oxygen supply to hospitals while Chief Ministers from Opposition parties have also raised questions on phase 3 of the vaccination drive in which the Centre has allowed states and private sector to buy vaccines from manufacturers.
The meeting with Chief Ministers is expected to be a brainstorming one as differences in approach of Centre and some states have also come to fore on issues like lockdown.
Before the crucial meeting with chief ministers, Modi will review the Covid-19 related situation with top officials from ministries in an internal meeting.
After the meeting with the CMs, the Prime Minister will hold a meeting with leading oxygen manufacturers in the country via video conferencing. He has held a few similar meetings with pharma manufacturers earlier as well.
Holding a high-level meeting on oxygen supply and availability, Modi on Thursday directed the officials to ensure that oxygen supply to various states happens in a smooth, unhindered manner and assured that various measures are being undertaken to rapidly increase the availability of cryogenic tankers through conversion of nitrogen and argon tankers, import and airlifting of tankers as well as manufacturing them.
Top officials, who attended the meeting informed the PM that an elaborate exercise is being done in coordination with the states to identify their demand for oxygen and ensure adequate supply accordingly.
The PM was briefed on how oxygen supply to states is steadily increasing. Against the present demand from 20 states of 6,785 MT/ day of Liquid Medical Oxygen, the Government of India has from 21st April, allocated 6,822 MT/ day to these states.
It was noted that in the last few days, availability of Liquid Medical Oxygen has been increased by about 3,300 MT/ day with contributions from private and public steel plants, industries, oxygen manufacturers as well as through prohibition of supply of oxygen for non-essential industries.