Centre claims Delhi getting excess oxygen, using it inefficiently, diverting to black market

Central government agencies have carried out a survey of 62 major government and private hospitals and 11 oxygen refilling stations in Delhi, and found that the oxygen provided to the city is being "inefficiently used" and possibly even being "diverted to black market", central government sources said.

They added that said such diversion of oxygen in Delhi is impacting the national supply chain.

To buttress their point, they said the Delhi government has been reluctant in the Supreme Court to allow an audit of its oxygen requirements, distribution and consumption.

"Inefficiency in use and diversion reports indicate that oxygen is being diverted to the black market or being hoarded by ministers of the Delhi government themselves," a central government source said.

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The Delhi High Court had recently served notice to Delhi's food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain for allegedly "hoarding" oxygen cylinders.

The central government sources said in case the Centre continues to supply oxygen to Delhi beyond its "rational requirements", it will deprive other states of oxygen.

Earlier this week, following the Supreme Court's direction, the Centre provided 730 metric tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) to Delhi.

What the survey found

As per the central government's survey, oxygen stock in hospitals and refilling plants has increased by over 50 per cent in the past two days.

The average stock, sources say, is nearly 1.2 times of the daily requirement, and some hospitals now have a stock that can last four-five days.

The survey was carried out in more than 60 major hospitals in Delhi and 11 major refilling plants. The hospitals included the likes of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, Batra Hospital, Fortis Shalimar Bagh, AIIMS, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute Okhla, among others.

Hospitals surveyed: 62
Current stock: 328 MT
Average daily consumption: 287 MT
Storage capacity: 522 MT

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Refilling stations surveyed: 11
Current stock: 117 MT
Average daily consumption: 82 MT
Storage capacity: 187 MT

Total (Hospitals + refilling plants)
Current stock: 445 MT
Average daily consumption: 369 MT
Storage capacity: 709 MT

The sources claim that there is now an "excess supply" of oxygen to Delhi and this is "evident" from the fact that since May 5, officials have not received any complaint of oxygen shortage.

"Everyone has more than usual stock and all refilling plants are also fully stocked up," a source said.

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Following Delhi's lead, with rising Covid-19 cases, states like Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and J&K too have started demanding more allocation for medical oxygen.

'Delhi unable to distribute what it has demanded'

Apart from these, the central government sources said the Delhi government ought to speed up its distribution of medical oxygen. They claimed that Delhi is getting "excess supply" and it "does not have space to store it".

This lack of adequate storage is allegedly resulting in delaying the turnaround of incoming oxygen tankers.

"Turnaround of oxygen from tankers/containers is taking over 24 hours. In fact, an oxygen container from Mundra took 54 hours to empty when it should only take up to 8 hours," a source said.

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