The demand for Oxygen has dipped sharply in Delhi and the heartland states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, indicating an improvement in the Covid-19 situation. Moreover, some of these states now have a buffer stock of Oxygen.
The Oxygen allocation is driven by a formula that about 10-12% of active cases need an Oxygen supply.
Meanwhile, the Centre’s oxygen supply to Tamil Nadu has been tripled in the last 18 days as the southern state is reporting a sharp spike in the number of Covid-19 cases. “The shortage of Oxygen in major states seen in end-April and early May is a thing of the past. States are being accused of fudging figures of cases by their respective political opponents, but the dip in Oxygen demand in multiple states shows that cases have indeed reduced sharply,” a senior central government official told News18.
Earlier this month, Congress-ruled Rajasthan, for example, had raised the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get its daily Oxygen supply up to 585 Metric Tons (MTs) as active cases in the state hit a high of almost 2.1 lakh cases on May 12. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had personally appealed to PM Modi regarding the matter. But Rajasthan’s demand has presently dropped to only 325 MTs daily after active cases have gone below 90,000, and it is one the states to have a buffer stock of Oxygen.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Oxygen demand has dropped to about 600 MTs daily from a high of nearly 900 MTs procured from other states earlier. It had earlier touched 1200 MTs.
In Bihar, the daily demand for Oxygen is down from 400 MTs to about 274 MTs, while in Madhya Pradesh, the Oxygen demand is down from 513 MTs to about 380 MTs.
Meanwhile, in the national capital, the AAP government had told the Delhi High Court last week that the requirement of Oxygen had gone down from the initial demand of 700 MTs and that 500 MTs is enough now.
The Delhi government and the Centre had a prolonged slugfest in court over Oxygen supplies.
However, Tamil Nadu is seeing an increase in Oxygen allocation as it is reporting big rise in cases and has touched a high of 3 lakh-plus active cases. The Centre had accepted Chief Minister MK Stalin’s demand on May 8 to increase Oxygen allocation for the state from 220 MTs to 440 MTs. Later, the allocation was further increased to 519 MTs. From May 24 onwards, the Oxygen supply has been 650 MTs.
The Oxygen allocation for Kerala is also up to over 400 MTs as the state has now over 2.5 lakh active cases.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram.
Comments
0 comment