Kejri warns of oxygen tragedy, Centre says he's playing politics

Raising an alarm that a "big tragedy" may happen due to oxygen shortage in hospitals during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said the Centre should take over all oxygen plants through the Army.

In a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Covid-19 situation, Kejriwal requested him to direct chief ministers of all states to ensure smooth movement of oxygen tankers coming to the national capital.

"People in major pain due to oxygen shortage. We fear a big tragedy may happen due to oxygen shortage and we will never be able to forgive ourselves. I request you with folded hands to direct all CMs to ensure smooth movement of oxygen tankers coming to Delhi," he said during the meeting.

"We need a national plan to deal with the crisis. Centre government should take over all oxygen plants through the Army and every tanker coming out of the oxygen plant should be accompanied by an Army escort vehicle," he said.

"The oxygen supply scheduled to come to Delhi from Odisha and West Bengal should either be airlifted or brought through the Oxygen express started by the Centre," he said.

The chief minister also objected to different rates being charged from state governments and the Centre for the COVID-19 vaccine, and said "one nation, one rate" policy should be followed.

Prime Minister Modi held a meeting on Friday with chief ministers of 10 states with the most number of Covid-19 cases.

The meeting via video conferencing comes amid a huge surge in coronavirus cases, which have now clocked a daily total of over 3 lakh in the country.

Chief ministers of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi are among those who attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, sources in the central government alleged that "Kejriwal used the entire PM-CM meet platform for playing politics".

"He raised the point of airlifting oxygen, but did not know that it is already being done. He spoke about Oxygen express by Railways but Railway sources say he has not communicated anything about it to Railways. He chose to spread lies on vaccine prices despite knowing that Centre does not keep one vaccine dose with itself and shares with states only. All CMs spoke about what they are doing to improve the situation. However, Kejriwal had nothing to speak on what he is doing," a source said.