NEW DELHI: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s televised comments during the interaction with PM Narendra Modi and other chief ministers on Friday regarding the pandemic situation and acute oxygen crisis in hospitals has triggered a controversy, with the Union government officials accusing him of “playing politics”.
The visibly upset PM chided Kejriwal for “breaking protocol”. As Kejriwal spoke about the acute oxygen crisis in hospitals in the national capital and called for a national plan to deal with the pandemic during Modi’s interaction with chief ministers of 11 states and Union Territories, PMO officials said they were surprised to find that the Delhi leader had provided a live feed of his comments to news channels.
Kejriwal lamented restrictions on the movement of oxygen tankers by the neighbouring states even while the hospitals in the national capital have been sending the “SOS” amid fast eroding stock of the medical-grade oxygen. He sought that the Army and the paramilitary personnel be pressed into action to ease the oxygen crisis in the national capital.
The PM also expressed his displeasure during the interaction over the issue, saying “this is strictly against our tradition, our protocol... that some Chief Minister is showing a live telecast of an in-house meeting.”
“This is not appropriate.
One should always maintain restraint,” Modi said, prompting a defensive Kejriwal to say that he will keep this in mind in future and offered an apology in case he had made a “mistake or spoken harshly”. However, the live streaming of his remarks continued. The CMO said there had been no written communication on the protocol for the conference with the PMO. “However, if any inconvenience was caused we highly regret that,” it said.
5 die as MP hospital runs out of oxygen
Bhopal: Five coronavirus patients admitted to the ICU of a private hospital in Jabalpur died allegedly after its oxygen supply ran out, prompting the authorities to order a probe. The incident which took place on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday at Galaxy Hospital came amid a grave medical oxygen shortage crisis in many parts of the country. Pravin Pandey, the relative of one of the deceased patients, alleged that all five deaths happened due to shortage of oxygen at around 3 am. “Hospital sources only told us that the patients died due to oxygen shortage,” he said. Health department sources said a probe has been ordered into the incident.