Centre said no need form panel to probe oxygen deaths: Manish Sisodia – ET HealthWorld


Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia

NEW DELHI: Deputy CM Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said that Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya had dismissed the need to form a committee to probe deaths caused due to oxygen shortage during the second Covid-19 wave in Delhi as a Supreme Court-appointed task force and subgroup were already investigating it.

Delhi government had formed a committee of health experts to investigate deaths due to lack of oxygen and provide a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each victim’s family, but the proposal wasn’t approved by LG Anil Baijal. Sisodia had also written to Mandaviya reiterating that a committee was necessary to correctly present the number of such deaths.

In a digital press conference, Sisodia said Mandaviya had claimed that the national task force was set-up on May 6 on the Supreme Court’s directions. It had 12 pertinent terms of reference, out of which five were for oxygen, so setting up an investigation committee by Delhi government was not required. “The 12-point agenda items are related to supply of oxygen to hospitals and recommendations and management for the future. They don’t mention deaths caused by oxygen shortage,” he added.

“This is a huge fraud by the central government. The second reason given by the Union health minister is that since the Supreme Court has directed that a subgroup be made for Delhi under the task force, and that an interim report has already been released, forming a committee is not important,” said Sisodia.

He added, “The purpose of conducting audits is to ensure accountability for proper distribution of oxygen supplies made available by the Centre to the states and Union Territories. To facilitate the audits, the task force has been mandated to constitute subgroups and committees for each state or UT.”

Sisodia alleged, “The Union health minister is defrauding us by falsely interpreting the work of the national task force. I want to ask him if Supreme Court had to investigate the deaths due to oxygen shortage, then why did the Centre ask the states to declare the number of deaths?”

“The reason behind so many deaths is the gross mismanagement of oxygen supply by the central government,” alleged Sisodia, imploring the Centre to let Delhi government investigate the deaths in a proper manner.





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