NEW DELHI: With an unprecedented demand for medical oxygen across the country, the Inox Air company, which is caught up in the middle of some states’ fight for the life-saving gas, said it is fulfilling its commitments in Delhi.
The Delhi government has appealed to the Centre for help and accused the neighbouring states of acting as roadblock in the procurement process of medical oxygen. Amid the fight for medical oxygen in the national capital, officials at Inox said that they have been fulfilling all commitments to Delhi since the last one year.
“It was a surprise to us when the CM wrote a letter mentioning us and saying that we have diverted the supply. We have been fulfilling our commitments made to Delhi with respect to medical oxygen supply since the last one year. There are a few challenges in transporting oxygen from the plant to the site of demand, but the committed quantity is being supplied to hospitals in Delhi,” said an official at Inox on condition of anonymity.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had sent a letter to Union minister Piyush Goyal alleging that Inox’s oxygen supply was being “diverted” to other states at this critical juncture and urged Goyal to ensure uninterrupted supply of 700MT of oxygen to Delhi on a daily basis and “restore” supply of 140MT oxygen by the Inox.
Earlier, the Delhi government informed the High Court that oxygen was being diverted to other states. Inox was later ordered by the Delhi High Court not to divert supplies from the state to other places after a petition was filed on the matter.
Due to the large number of cases which has jolted the healthcare system in Delhi, leaving it literally gasping for breath, the demand for oxygen in hospitals has reached at an all-time high. Oxygen is a critical ingredient in the management of certain categories of Covid patients.
The company officials who are tight-lipped as the matter is still in the court, however, informed that currently there are three plants of Inox around Delhi but none is in the national capital. These are in Inox Bhiwadi, Haryana, and Inox Surajpur and Inox Modinagar in UP.