NEW DELHI: Highlighting the ordeal faced by COVID-19 patients who are forced to buy oxygen at exorbitant rates, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday urged the Delhi government to fix the gas price in the city.
In a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said oxygen is available in industrial zones but the rates differ across the city and keep changing every hour.
“People of Delhi are on one hand facing large-scale spread of COVID-19 while on the other hand they are forced to buy medicines and oxygen at exorbitant rates in the black market. As a result we find ‘Oxygen Mandis’ operating in several industrial corners of Delhi including Okhla, Badarpur, Palam, Mayapuri, Lawrence Road, Punjabi Bagh, Shahdara and Old Delhi where oxygen is being sold at exorbitant rates,” his letter said.
He pointed out that a six-litre oxygen cylinder is being refilled for Rs 400 to Rs 900. The bigger cylinders are being sold at higher premiums, he added. Seeking the chief minister’s intervention, Kapoor’s communiqué said the state government should fix the rates of oxygen to stop looting of common patients.