Delhi HC comes down heavily on Kejriwal govt over oxygen crisis, says it is just distributing 'lollipops'

Coming down heavily on the Arvind Kejriwal government, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that if the administration is unable to address issues related to the COVID-19 crisis, it will ask officers of the central government to take over the matter.

Hearing pleas on the oxygen crisis in the national capital, the court also said that it seems like the Delhi government is just distributing 'lollipops'. The court asked the government to take over an oxygen refilling plant with immediate effect and also served contempt notices to five re-fillers.

"If you (Delhi Government) are not going to be able to manage then tell us, we will ask central government officers to take over (the re-filling units)," a bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rekha Palli.

"Our confidence is shaken, you (Delhi Government) put your house on order. It seems all you`re doing is the distribution of lollipops. There is a major problem on your end," said the court.

It added the Delhi government has to pull up its socks with respect to the distribution of not only liquid oxygen but also oxygen cylinders and no account is being kept on how they are further supplying oxygen to hospitals and individuals. This is leading to an artificial black market, the court noted.

The bench also asked Delhi government to file an affidavit mentioning the status of stocks of liquid and gaseous oxygen with re-fillers by 10 am on Wednesday.

The Kejriwal government told the court that they have limited supply of Remedisvir, on which the court asked whether a portal can be made to overcome the problem of supply, which will help in dealing with this problem. The court also directed the government to take records from all the pharmacies on the supply of Remedisvir, Dexamethasone and Fabiflu along with other necessary medicines and take action if any black marketing is detected.

(With ANI inputs)