Oxygen supply grossly insufficient, govt tells court

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy made the appeal while passing orders on the suo motu plea after hearing Advocate General R Shanmugasundaram that the State might be in trouble for want of oxygen as the cases needing hospitalisation were rising. 

The court noted that the demand was 475 MT oxygen per day last week, while the allocation of May 8 provides for 419 MT, including a daily 40 MT supply from Palakkad in Kerala till May 12. 

“The State now perceives that, with the rising numbers, the demand for oxygen will hit 800 MT within the next few days and seeks augmented supply,” the Chief Justice recorded. 

It was the Centre’s responsibility to ensure continuous supply of oxygen till the SC-appointed National Task Force (NTF) announced allocations, Chief Justice Banerjee said. 

Pointing out reports of local public stopping vehicles carrying oxygen from Palakkad to Coimbatore perceiving oxygen shortage in Kerala, he said the State and Centre should find ways to effective supply oxygen to the south-western region of Tamil Nadu, as it would be logistically difficult to take supply from Sriperumbudur or elsewhere in north or central Tamil Nadu. Supplying from Palakkad, which lies about 40 km from Coimbatore, was more efficient, he added. 

The number of COVID cases continues to increase every day, but there was some indication that it would taper off, the Chief Justice opined.