LG Anil Baijal rejects Delhi govt`s proposal to form panel to probe deaths due to oxygen shortage: Manish Sisodia

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, `The Centre will have to accept that it was responsible for the oxygen crisis. People across the entire country bore the brunt of it.`

New Delhi: Amid debate on oxygen-related deaths due to COVID-19, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Friday (August 20) that Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has once again rejected the proposal to form a committee to "investigate deaths due to oxygen shortage" in the national capital. 

Addressing an online press conference, Sisodia said that it cannot be denied that people died due to shortage of oxygen in Delhi. “No one can deny that Delhi grappled with an oxygen crisis in April and May during the second Covid wave and also no one can deny that people died in the capital due to shortage of oxygen,” the AAP leader said. 

“We had resubmitted a file for the constitution of a panel to probe deaths due to oxygen shortage. The LG (lieutenant governor) is saying that there is no need for that," PTI quoted Sisodia as saying. 

Attacking the Centre, Sisodia said that on one hand the central government is asking the states to furnish the number of deaths that occurred due to dearth of oxygen, and on the other, "you have not been allowing us to investigate such deaths". He questioned, "Then how will states tell?"

Sisodia alleged, "That means the Centre deliberately wants us to give in writing that no death occurred due to the shortage of oxygen in the entire country. It will be a big lie. It will be a cruel joke with the families who have lost their loved ones.” 

Further, he asked why the Centre does not want the oxygen-related deaths to be probed. "People have died due to oxygen shortage in the 21st century, but the Centre is saying these fatalities should not be probed. Why?" 

The Delhi Deputy CM added, "The Centre will have to accept that it was responsible for the oxygen crisis. People across the entire country bore the brunt of it."

Last week, Sisodia wrote to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya that it is difficult to ascertain without a probe if there were any oxygen-related deaths during the second Covid wave, and had sought a fresh nod from the LG to form an expert panel. 

On July 20, the Central government had said in the Rajya Sabha that no deaths due to lack of oxygen have been specifically reported by states/Union territories during the second wave of COVID-19. In a written reply to Congress MP KC Venugopal, Minister of State for Health Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar claimed, “No deaths due to lack of oxygen has been specifically reported by states/UTs. However, Government of India has supported the States and undertook a series of actions including provisioning medical oxygen, and other consumables to ensure clinical care of COVID-19 patients in view of steep rise of COVID-19 trajectory in the country during April- May 2021.” The Centre had received a lot of flak from the opposition as well as online for the statement. 

(With agency inputs)