The Supreme Court audit panel in a report said that the Delhi government exaggerated the city's oxygen needs by four times at the peak of the Covid second wave crisis.
"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," says an interim report of the oxygen audit panel appointed by the Supreme Court.
The audit panel was overseen by AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, including Delhi Government Principal Home Secretary Bhupinder Bhalla, Max Healthcare Director Sandeep Buddhiraja and Union Jal Shakti Ministry Joint Secretary Subodh Yadav.
Delhi's average oxygen consumption was between 284 to 372 MT.
This surplus supply of oxygen has affected the other states that needed oxygen, the panel said.
Four hospitals in the national capital have been criticised for using a high amount of oxygen with fewer beds. Singhal Hospital, Aruna Asif Ali Hospital, ESIC Model Hospital and Liferay Hospital had limited beds and their data was wrong. This wrong data has led to amplified claims of oxygen shortages in Delhi, the report says.
The panel has also noted discrepancies in the data provided by Delhi hospitals.
“There was a gross discrepancy (about four times). This is because the actual oxygen consumption claimed by the Delhi government (1,140MT) was about four times higher than the calculated consumption as per the formula based on bed capacity (289 MT),” the panel report stated.
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The Petroleum and Oxygen Safety Organization (PESO) said that Delhi had enough oxygen with them, and the UT getting excess O2 could have led to a national crisis.
Reacting to the audit report, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP said, “People of Delhi suffered, other states faced a crisis due to this mismanagement. This is a damning audit report, hope lessons will be learnt and responsibility fixed.”
The Delhi government's data said from April 29 to May 10, the consumption of oxygen did not surpass 350 MT.
The top court had directed the centre to supply 700 MT of oxygen daily to Delhi though the centre had argued that it was an inflated request.
When in April-May, the deadly second wave of Covid-19 hit the country, many hospitals in Delhi had sent out SOS messages accepting shortage of medical oxygen on social media and some even went to court.
After the Delhi High Court intervention, the centre revised Delhi’s oxygen quota and more oxygen tankers were sent to the national capital by reducing supply to other states.
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Delhi only required 300 metric tons of oxygen, but the Kejriwal government raised the demand to 1200 metric tons, the audit report further stated.