The BJP on Friday lashed out at Delhi government and accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of committing a ‘heinous crime’ by exaggerating the oxygen requirement by four times during the second wave of the pandemic. This was after a Supreme Court-appointed audit panel’s report concluded that the AAP government had ‘inflated’ its oxygen requirement during the second wave of the pandemic by four times.
Addressing a press conference, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said that the Delhi government had demanded 1,140 MT of the life-saving gas during the peak of the second wave even though it could utilise 209 MT.
“Imagine the amount of criminality. This is a heinous crime by Arvind Kejriwal. This is criminal negligence as the panel says he sought four times more oxygen than required. The report has exposed the politics he did to shift blame from his incompetence and failure to deal with COVID-19,” news agency PTI quoted Patra as saying.
The BJP spokesperson said that the requirement stood at 351 MT even if the panel went by the Delhi government’s formula while it was 289 MT according to the central government”s estimate.
Rattled by the damning report coupled with the BJP’s attack, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that no such report existed. Sisodia said that his government would challenge the content of the report in the Supreme Court.
“Show me the signed report of the members. This report has been prepared at BJP office and submitted by central govt in SC. We will take it up in SC,” Sisodia tweeted.
The audit report filed by the sub-group constituted by the Supreme Court, according to NDTV, said in its interim report, “It was discussed that there is a gross discrepancy (about 4 times) in that the actual oxygen consumption claimed (1140MT) was about 4 times higher than the versus calculated consumption by formula for bed capacity (289MT).”
The members of the sub-group include AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, includes Delhi Government Principal Home Secretary Bhupinder Bhalla, Max Healthcare Director Sandeep Buddhiraja, Union Jal Shakti Ministry Joint Secretary Subodh Yadav and Sanjay Kumar Singh of the Petroleum and Oxygen Safety Organization (PESO).
Delhi had become one of the worst-hit Indian cities by the recent wave of the pandemic. Grieving families had to wait for hours outside the crematoriums to perform the last rites of their loved ones. Kejriwal was accused of inaction and having not planned in advance to deal with the pandemic.
The AAP leader has often faced ire from his detractors for spending crores of taxpayers’ money in promoting himself through advertisements, but not doing enough to avert the pandemic, which killed scores of people in the national capital.