Kejriwal's office 'regrets' televised appeal to PM

After Arvind Kejriwal faced criticism over the breach of protocol by sharing a live telecast of an "in-house" COVID-19 review meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minster's Office said it has regretted the inconvenience caused by the live streaming of the conference, adding that there was never any instruction from the Centre that the interaction could not be shared live.

"Today, the chief minister address was shared live because there has never been any instruction, written or verbal, from central govt that the said interaction could not be shared live," said Delhi CMO in a statement on Friday.

It further said that there have been multiple occasions of similar interactions where matters of public importance which had no confidential information were shared live. "However, if any inconvenience was caused we highly regret that," the CMO said.

During the live telecast of the video, Kejriwal talked about shortage of oxygen in the national capital and appealed to the prime minister to facilitate the airlift of oxygen from West Bengal and Odisha to resolve the shortage in Delhi.

"Will people of Delhi not get oxygen if there is no oxygen-producing plant here? Please suggest whom should I speak to in Central Government when an oxygen tanker destined for Delhi is stopped in another state?" Delhi chief minister said.

Meanwhile, the government sources said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal used the COVID-review conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a platform to "play politics". They further said that his speech was not meant for solutions but to evade responsibility.

"(He) chose to spread lies on vaccine prices despite knowing that the Centre does not keep one vaccine dose with itself and shares with states only," sources said.

Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Modi chaired a meeting with the chief ministers of high burden states, over the prevailing COVID-19 situation.

This comes as India has seen a record surge in COVID-19 cases in the past few days.