New Delhi: The Delhi government exaggerated the city's oxygen requirement by four times at the peak of the Covid crisis, a Supreme Court panel has said in its interim report.
"The Delhi government's claim of 1,140 Metric Tonnes was four times the calculated consumption as per bed formula, which was 289 MT only," the report says.
The average consumption of oxygen in Delhi was between 284 to 372 MT. "The excess supply of oxygen affected other states in need of oxygen," the panel says.
Four Delhi hospitals have been called out for claiming high consumption of oxygen with fewer beds. The Singhal Hospital, Aruna Asif Ali Hospital, ESIC Model Hospital and Liferay Hospital had few beds and their data was wrong; this led to exaggerated claims of oxygen needs in Delhi, the report says.
The panel noted discrepancies in the data given by Delhi hospitals.
In May this year, the top court had stayed the contempt proceedings initiated by Delhi High Court against central government officials for non-compliance of direction to supply 700 MT of oxygen for COVID patients to Delhi, saying "putting officers in jail" would not bring oxygen and efforts should be made to save lives.
