In a fresh twist to the battle for oxygen between Delhi and the Centre, the Delhi High Court has issued a notice of contempt to the country's largest medical oxygen manufacturer Inox, citing non-compliance with the court order.
On April 19, the Delhi High Court court directed Inox not to divert supplies from Delhi to other places after a petition was filed on the matter. The counsel for the Delhi government has informed the court that the company has violated the court order and did not supply it to the state.
The High Court said: "We direct M/s Inox to honour its contract with the Delhi government and hospitals and continue to supply oxygen and restore 140 metric tonnes supply immediately." However, due to the non-compliance on this, the Delhi High Court has directed Inox managing director or owner to be present in the court on April 21.
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On the other hand, the company supplied Oxygen to Delhi's GTB Hospital which was running short of oxygen last night. On April 29, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had said that GTB Hospital was running out of medical oxygen. Following this, an oxygen tanker reached the hospital at around 1:30 am on April 21, saving the lives of over 500 critical COVID-19 patients. On April 20, Delhi recorded the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases adding 28,395 cases. Though the state had sought 700 metric tonnes of oxygen per day from the Centre, it was allocated only 300 metric tonnes.
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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also asked the Centre through a tweet to provide the supply of oxygen immediately as the state is facing a serious shortage of gas. States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are facing a heavy shortage of life-saving gas. Hospitals in these high-burden states are having a stock of only one day off oxygen compared to three days before.
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