Panipat/Chandigarh: Hours after Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, Dr.Sangeeta Reddy tweeted about oxygen supply being stopped by the Haryana government, an air of calm settled over the compound of Air Liquide, where the commotion had taken place earlier.
Update: The driver has just been allowed inside & hopefully the oxygen will be sent out soon.
Further to my earlier tweet an appeal once again to the Govt to please tag oxygen tank as ambulances & enable quick green corridor movement@PMOIndia @PiyushGoyal @rajnathsingh https://t.co/5kaaPFA9va
— Dr. Sangita Reddy (@drsangitareddy) April 22, 2021
The Ministry of Home Affairs had passed an order Thursday afternoon prohibiting any state from interfering with the supply of oxygen, or imposing restrictions on the transport of oxygen.
Since then police have been stationed outside Air Liquide to ensure the MHA order is followed and that there are no disruptions to oxygen supplies. The manufacturing firm is located in the Panipat Indian Oil Corporation Limited refinery.
“We have been stationed here since yesterday to see that the oxygen is supplied with no problems. There’s no telling how long we will be stationed here, though,” said Romi Gill, a police officer at the site.
Just a day earlier, however, the police were doing the bidding of the state government. Home and Health Minister Anil Vij had claimed Delhi “looted” oxygen supply that was on its way to Faridabad.
“On Wednesday the police stopped our truck and said we could not go to Delhi. This was after we waited hours to get our tank filled. We had to wait four to five hours before being let go,” said Kuldeep Yadav, a truck driver supplying Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in Delhi with oxygen. “We were getting calls from the hospital and the company, but we were helpless. We were finally let go by 8 pm.”
At a press conference Thursday, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar didn’t deny holding the supply hostage but said the problem had been “resolved.”
“I have even held a detailed discussion with the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on this issue,” he said, adding, “From now on, one truck will be loaded for Haryana and one truck each for Delhi and Punjab. This entire process at Panipat plant is being closely monitored by me.”
A spokesperson for Apollo Hospital told ThePrint, “It was really touch and go for us for a while, but we managed to get the oxygen supply on time. We are expecting the supply to be smoother now on, since the order has been passed.”
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Supply to Delhi
The Panipat refinery has the capacity to produce 260 metric tons (MT) of oxygen, of which 140 MT is supplied to Delhi, 80 MT is supplied to Haryana and about 20 MT is for Punjab. Khattar said a roster had been drawn up for the filling and loading of oxygen cylinders in the trucks from the refinery.
Hospitals in the national capital which saw 26,169 new cases Thursday, have been left gasping for oxygen following shortages.
Though the MHA order was passed in the afternoon, hospitals continued to send out SOS messages on social media as they scrambled for supplies.
SOS -Batra Hospital. A senior doctor said, " I am running pillar to post…I am writing to everybody bcoz we have only 2 hrs of O2 supply. We can't ask patients to go back. We have 1,000 kg of central oxygen supply and need 7,000 kg for 352 Covid patients here."@IndianExpress
— Jignasa Sinha (@jignasa_sinha) April 22, 2021
Dr.Kamal K.Parwal of the Aakash Super Speciality Hospital, Sector 3 Dwarka in New Delhi wrote to the Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan at 4 pm Thursday, saying their oxygen supply trucks had been stopped by the Faridabad police on the instructions of the Haryana government.
Dr.Rahul, Director Fortis, Gurugram, tweeted that oxygen supply to the hospital had been affected because there was a disruption at Bhiwadi in Rajasthan. He said the oxygen would last only one hour and a 100 patients were on oxygen support. This, even though Vij had said he would “talk” to the Chief Minister of Rajasthan.
1 hour oxygen left in fortis gurugram. Tanker from bhiwadi not allowed to come to Haryana. We cater to Pt from all India they cannot pay price for a political war @News24 @arunsangwan81 @summwadhwa @PMOIndia we have 200 Pt on oxygen please please help. @cmohry @jyoti_archana
— RahulDoc (@RahulDoc2) April 22, 2021
Saket Tiku, President of the All India Industrial Gases Manufacturers Association told ThePrint, “Right now the situation is such that states feel they have the right over what is being produced in their states,” adding, “There are clear cut instructions which should be followed now. If they aren’t followed, then the system fails.”
Also read: 25 Covid patients die, 60 more at risk Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, due to oxygen crisis