News Analysis India

Tag: medical oxygen

  • UP’s Amethi now self-reliant in medical oxygen production with seven plants: MP Smriti Irani

    By PTI

    AMETHI: Amethi was neglected for 70 years and there was not even one oxygen generation unit, but it has become self-reliant in medical oxygen now with seven plants, Union Minister Smriti Irani said on Saturday, in an apparent swipe at the Congress whose leaders represented the constituency for decades.

    Irani, on a two-day visit to her parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, inspected a trauma centre in Jagdishpur.

    “Amethi was deprived of various facilities for 70 years. There was not a single oxygen plant in Amethi, but today there are seven oxygen plants. In the area of medical oxygen, Amethi has become self-reliant,” she said.

    ALSO READ | India sends 150 tonnes of oxygen to Sri Lanka to help it tackle coronavirus surge

    “Amethi is my home, my family. I know how to look after the family. I do what I say. You have seen that during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Initially samples had to be sent to Lucknow for testing, but the Yogi Adityanath government in UP made such a provision that COVID-19 tests are now being conducted in Amethi,” said Irani, who defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the constituency in 2019.

    “Whether I am in Amethi or outside, I keep a tab of Amethi and am in touch with the administration,” the Union Women and Child Development Minister said.

  • Indian Railways to deliver 200 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen to Bangladesh on July 25

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Railways is set to deliver a consignment of 200 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen on an Oxygen Express train to neighbouring Bangladesh on Sunday.

    This will be the first time that the life-saving gas is destined for delievery outside the country.

    The train with 10 containers departed from Tatanagar in Jharkhand on Saturday and is expected to reach Benapol in Bangladesh tomorrow.

    “First liquid oxygen tanker on rails 200 metric tonnes to Bangladesh loaded from Tatanagar, should reach tomorrow morning,” the Railways said.

    During the peak of the second wave of the coronavirus crisis in India when states were grappling with shortage of oxygen, the Railways began operating the Oxygen Express trains.

    The railways rain around 480 such trains and carried 36,841 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen across the country since it stated operations on April 24, 2021.

  • Amidst political storm, Maharashtra Health Minister says oxygen shortage killed none in state

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said the state government never reported any death due to shortage of oxygen during the second wave of COVID-19.

    Notably, in April this year, 22 patients died after the oxygen supply was disrupted at a Nashik hospital due to leakage in an oxygen storage plant, local officials had said. Tope had then said a thorough probe will be conducted to find out if negligence led to the leakage of oxygen at the hospital.

    ALSO READ | Opposition-ruled states claimed no death due to oxygen shortage, now doing politics: BJP 

    On Tuesday, the Union government had told the Rajya Sabha that no deaths due to lack of oxygen were specifically reported by states and UTs during the second COVID-19 wave, drawing sharp criticism from opposition leaders.

    When asked by a TV channel about the Centre’s statement, Tope said, “We never said people died due to oxygen shortage in the state. Many of them had issues like co-morbidities and other illnesses. No death has taken place due to the shortage of oxygen.”

    Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, whose party shares power with the NCP and Congress in Maharashtra, said people whose relatives died due to oxygen shortage should “take the Union government to court”.

    Noting that opposition-ruled states claimed in courts that there was no death due to shortage of oxygen during the second COVID-19 wave and made similar assertions in their response to the Centre, the BJP on Wednesday hit back at its rivals amid a row over the Modi government’s reply in Parliament on the matter.

    BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra noted that the central government’s reply was based on the figures provided by states and UTs as health is a state subject.

    No state sent any data about patients dying due to oxygen shortage, he asserted.

    ALSO READ | ‘Govt increased oxygen exports by about 700% during pandemic’: Priyanka Gandhi slams Centre over oxygen shortage statement 

    He said the Maharashtra government also told the Bombay High Court that no one died due to the oxygen shortage and Chhattisgarh Health Minister T S Singh Deo has also made similar claims.

    Shortly after the statement in the Rajya Sabha was made over the issue in a written reply by Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar on Tuesday, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal accused the minister of having “misled” the House.

    Describing the statement as “condemnable”, Venugopal, a Rajya Sabha MP to whose question the reply was given, had said he will move a privilege motion against the minister.

  • Opposition-ruled states claimed no death due to oxygen shortage, now doing politics: BJP 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Noting that opposition-ruled states claimed in courts that there was no death due to shortage of oxygen during the second COVID-19 wave and made similar assertions in their response to the Centre, the BJP on Wednesday hit back at its rivals amid a row over the Modi government’s reply in Parliament on the matter.

    The government had told Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that no deaths due to lack of oxygen were specifically reported by states and UTs during the second COVID-19 wave, drawing sharp criticism from opposition leaders.

    Deaths of patients in hospitals due to lack of life-saving gas were reported from several states during the peak of the second wave in April-May as the demand for medical oxygen zoomed.

    BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra noted that the central government’s reply was based on the figures provided by states and UTs as health is a state subject.

    No state sent any data about patients dying due to oxygen shortage, he asserted.

    He accused opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress and Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party, of doing politics on the matter, and said the states where these parties are in power have claimed that no one died there due to lack of oxygen.

    Hitting out at Gandhi, he said, “You have acted as a Twitter troll throughout the pandemic by writing two-line lies frequently.

    It is painful that a former president of one of the largest parties has behaved so irresponsibly.”

    ALSO READ | ‘Completely false’: Delhi Health Minister hits out at Centre’s ‘no one died due to oxygen shortage’ remarks

    With the AAP also targeting the Modi government over its reply in Rajya Sabha, Patra noted that a Delhi government committee had told high court that there was no evidence to suggest that around 21 people had died due to shortage of oxygen in Jaipur Golden hospital on April 23-24 night after the hospital management reported the matter.

    The Maharashtra government also told Bombay High Court that no one died due to the oxygen shortage and Chhattisgarh Health Minister T S Singh Deo has also made similar claims, the BJP spokesperson said.

    Gandhi should speak to the chief ministers in the states where his party is in power instead of “lying” on Twitter and spreading confusion, he said.

    These opposition-ruled states had spoken about patients dying due to the oxygen crisis when the second wave was peaking as they wanted to target the Modi government but have taken a different stand in writing and their submission to courts, he said, adding that it shows they want to politicise the whole issue.

    ALSO READ | Shiv Sena hits out at Centre’s ‘no oxygen shortage deaths’ remark, Sanjay Raut wants people to move court

    It is not that the central government has tied their hands, and they should have spoken truth when they were asked to submit their response in writing, he asserted.

    To a question about the BJP-run states, Patra said people might have suffered there too but they neither levelled allegations like the opposition-ruled states nor the issue was taken to high courts there in this manner.

    Shortly after the statement in Rajya Sabha was made in a written reply by Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar on Tuesday, AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal accused the minister of having “misled” the house.

    Describing the statement as “condemnable”, Venugopal, a Rajya Sabha MP to whose question the reply was given, said he will move a privilege motion against the minister.

  • ‘Govt increased oxygen exports by about 700% during pandemic’: Priyanka Gandhi slams Centre over oxygen shortage statement 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday attacked the Centre over its statement that there were no deaths due to lack of oxygen during the Covid second wave, alleging that the fatalities happened because the government increased oxygen exports in the pandemic year and did not arrange tankers to transport it.

    ALSO READ | Shiv Sena hits out at Centre’s ‘no oxygen shortage deaths’ remark, Sanjay Raut wants people to move court

    The Centre on Tuesday told the Rajya Sabha that no deaths due to lack of oxygen were “specifically reported” by states and union territories during the second COVID-19 wave that hit the country.

    Hitting out at the government, Priyanka Gandhi said, “‘No death due to lack of oxygen’: Central Government. The deaths happened because — in the pandemic year, the government increased oxygen exports by about 700 per cent.”

    The Congress general secretary alleged that the deaths happened because the government did not arrange tankers to transport oxygen and ignoring the advice of the empowered group and a parliamentary committee, no arrangement was made to provide oxygen.

    “No initiative was shown in setting up oxygen plants in hospitals,” she said.

    The Congress on Tuesday accused Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar of misleading Parliament by giving “false information” that there were no deaths due to lack of oxygen during the second wave.

    ALSO READ | Delhi Health Minister hits out at Centre’s ‘no one died due to oxygen shortage’ remarks

    In a written reply to a question, Pawar had said, “Detailed guidelines for reporting of deaths have been issued by the Union Health Ministry to all states and UTs.

    Accordingly, all states and UTs report cases and deaths to the Union Health Ministry on a regular basis.

    However, no deaths due to lack of oxygen have been specifically reported by states and UTs”.

  • Shiv Sena hits out at Centre’s ‘no oxygen shortage deaths’ remark, Sanjay Raut wants people to move court

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said people whose relatives died due to oxygen shortage during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic should “take the Union government to court”.

    Raut’s comments came a day after the central government said in the Rajya Sabha that no deaths due to lack of oxygen were specifically reported by states and UTs during the second COVID-19 wave.

    Reacting to it, Raut said, “Many people have died due to oxygen shortage in several states. Those whose relatives (COVID-19 patients) died due to oxygen shortage should take the Union government to court.

    “The Union government is running away from the truth I seems it is the effect of Pegasus (Israeli spyware),” the Rajya Sabha member said sarcastically while talking to reporters.

    ALSO READ | ‘Completely false’: Delhi Health Minister hits out at Centre’s ‘no one died due to oxygen shortage’ remarks

    The Sena’s chief spokesperson further said it needs to be found out whether the people whose relatives died due to lack of oxygen supply believe in the Centre’s response in Parliament over the issue.

    The Union government on Tuesday said in the Rajya Sabha that there was an unprecedented surge in demand for medical oxygen during the second wave and it peaked at nearly 9,000 MT compared to 3,095 MT in the first wave, following which the Centre had to step in to facilitate equitable distribution among the states.

  • Oxygen Express surpasses 15,000 tonnes in deliveries; Assam latest to get consignment 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The railways has so far delivered 15,284 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in 936 tankers to various states through its Oxygen Express service, the national transporter said on Sunday.

    So far, 234 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey and brought relief to various states, while nine loaded Oxygen Expresses are currently on the run with more than 569 tonnes of LMO in 31 tankers.

    The first Oxygen Express to Assam with 80 tonnes of LMO in four tankers reached Assam on Sunday.

    The delivery of LMO by Oxygen Expresses to Karnataka has crossed the 1,000-tonne mark, the railways said in a statement.

    On an average, Oxygen Expresses have been delivering over 800 tonnes of LMO to various states each day now.

    Oxygen relief by Oxygen Expresses reached 14 states — Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam.

    So far, 614 tonnes of oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3,609 tonne in Uttar Pradesh, 566 tonnes in Madhya Pradesh, 4,300 tonnes in Delhi, 1,759 tonnes in Haryana, 98 tonnes in Rajasthan, 1,063 tonnes in Karnataka, 320 tonnes in Uttarakhand, 857 tonnes in Tamil Nadu, 642 tonnes in Andhra Pradesh, 153 tonnes in Punjab, 246 tonnes in Kerala, 976 tonnes in Telangana and 80 tonnes in Assam.

    The railways has mapped different routes with oxygen supply locations and keep themselves ready with any emerging need of states.

    States provide tankers to the Indian Railways for bringing LMO.

    Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 29 days back on April 24 in Maharashtra with a load of 126 tonnes.

    Its first service began when empty tankers left Mumbai on April 19 to be loaded with the life-saving gas.

    Criss-crossing the country, the Indian Railways is picking up oxygen from places such as Hapa, Baroda, Mundra in the West and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, Angul in the East and then delivering it to states of Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam in complex operational route planning scenarios.

    The average speed of these critical freight trains is way above 55 kmph in most cases over long distances.

    Running on high priority Green Corridor, with a highest sense of urgency, operational teams of various zones are working round the clock in most challenging circumstances to ensure that oxygen reaches in fastest possible time frame, .

    Technical stoppages have been reduced to one minute for crew changes over different sections.

    On Saturday, in a first, an Oxygen Express train piloted by an ‘All Female Crew’ arrived in the Bengaluru with 120 tonnes of medical oxygen from Jamshedpur.

  • Consider allotment of required oxygen, Remdesivir injections to Rajasthan: HC to Centre

    A Division Bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Vinit Kumar Mathur said this on Friday while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) over the issue.

  • Mamata Banerjee steps up pressure on PM Modi with third letter 

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: For the third consecutive day since the start of her third term on Wednesday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday wrote to the Prime Minister seeking the allocation of more medical oxygen for the state. In her letter, the TMC supremo alleged that the Centre has increased allocation of medical oxygen to other states from the total production in West Bengal in the past 10 days, but kept the allocation for the state constant at a level which is much less than the requirement.

    Mamata’s non-stop letter-bomb targeting the BJP-led Centre is said to be part of her efforts to counter the saffron camp’s attack on the ruling TMC government over the post-election violence in West Bengal. Alleging that the Centre is not paying any heed to the state’s request, the Bengal CM wrote, “Instead of allocating oxygen as per the requirement of West Bengal, Government of India has increased allocation of oxygen to other states, from the total production in West Bengal, during the last 10 days from 230 MT to 360 MT, keeping the allocation for West Bengal constant at 308 MT per day despite its requirement being of 550 MT per day.’’

    Replying to Mamata, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday wrote saying that Centre stands ready to provide all support to the state in order to help it effectively fight the pandemic. He however also urged Banerjee, who also holds the health portfolio in the state, to ramp up testing, especially in districts that have reported more than 40% test positivity rate. On oxygen, Vardhan wrote that as many as five Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants have been sanctioned for the state, out of which, two have already been made functional. “Similarly, 849 D-Type and 1504 B-Type oxygen cylinders have been allocated to West Bengal. Out of this, 700 will be delivered on or before May 21.”

    Two, including BJP worker, arrested The West Bengal CID arrested two youth, including a member of BJP’s students’ wing ABVP, on Friday on the charges of circulating fake videos related to post-poll violence on social media.  Argha Saha, an ABVP member was arrested from his residence in Sonarpur, South 24 Parganas

  • Mamata Banerhee steps up pressure on PM Modi with third letter 

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: For the third consecutive day since the start of her third term on Wednesday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday wrote to the Prime Minister seeking the allocation of more medical oxygen for the state. In her letter, the TMC supremo alleged that the Centre has increased allocation of medical oxygen to other states from the total production in West Bengal in the past 10 days, but kept the allocation for the state constant at a level which is much less than the requirement.

    Mamata’s non-stop letter-bomb targeting the BJP-led Centre is said to be part of her efforts to counter the saffron camp’s attack on the ruling TMC government over the post-election violence in West Bengal. Alleging that the Centre is not paying any heed to the state’s request, the Bengal CM wrote, “Instead of allocating oxygen as per the requirement of West Bengal, Government of India has increased allocation of oxygen to other states, from the total production in West Bengal, during the last 10 days from 230 MT to 360 MT, keeping the allocation for West Bengal constant at 308 MT per day despite its requirement being of 550 MT per day.’’

    Replying to Mamata, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday wrote saying that Centre stands ready to provide all support to the state in order to help it effectively fight the pandemic. He however also urged Banerjee, who also holds the health portfolio in the state, to ramp up testing, especially in districts that have reported more than 40% test positivity rate. On oxygen, Vardhan wrote that as many as five Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants have been sanctioned for the state, out of which, two have already been made functional. “Similarly, 849 D-Type and 1504 B-Type oxygen cylinders have been allocated to West Bengal. Out of this, 700 will be delivered on or before May 21.”

    Two, including BJP worker, arrested The West Bengal CID arrested two youth, including a member of BJP’s students’ wing ABVP, on Friday on the charges of circulating fake videos related to post-poll violence on social media.  Argha Saha, an ABVP member was arrested from his residence in Sonarpur, South 24 Parganas