Oxygen politics: Minister Himanta Biswa slams Kejriwal for 'blaming' PM Modi

GUWAHATI: Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today coming to the aid of prime minister Narendra Modi accused Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of wrongly accusing the Centre for his state's oxygen woes.

"Dear Sri @ArvindKejriwal - Assam has installed 8 Oxygen plants (5.25 MT /day) after #Covid crisis hit us; 5 in process. PM Sri @narendramodi gave Delhi funds for 8 plants through #PMCARES in Dec 2020. Why blame Modi, when your govt has failed and could instal just one out of 8!," Biswa Sarma tweeted.

However, the Assam wing of Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a retaliatory tweet pointed out that the installation work of the oxygen plants was actually a task to be completed by the contracted vendor of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

In an earlier tweet, the BJP minister had claimed that contrary to popular belied, the non-NDA states had been given a lion's share of the oxygen supply.

"Non-NDA states have been given lion's share of #oxygen - Maha (1661 MT), Delhi (480 MT), AP (440 MT), Telangana (360 MT), Chhattisgarh (227 MT), Rajasthan (207 MT), Punjab (136 MT). Facts speak for themselves" he wrote. "Let's not play politics NOW," he further appealed.

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Prime minister Narendra Modi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal got into a minor fracas during the Union government’s video conference with Chief Ministers of States with a high COVID-19 burden, after Kejriwal livestreamed his interjections at the meeting.

Kejriwal, during his interjection at the meeting, live-streamed his remarks, which Mr. Modi objected to as it was happening.

Union Health Ministry informed the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that the central government had sanctioned funds from PM CARES Fund to Kejriwal Government in December 2020 to set up eight PSA (Pressure Swing Absorption) oxygen plants in Delhi. However, since December, only one such plant has been set up by the Kejriwal govt.

The Delhi HC, in turn, slammed both the Delhi government and the central government due to the oxygen crisis in the national capital.

The HC order stated that the Central government officer Nipun Vinayak pointed out that two hospitals in Delhi namely, Satyawadi Raja Harish Chandra Hospital and Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital have not yet provided the site clearance where the PSA plant can be installed.'

Two hospitals have now been provided with the site clearance and the equipment is likely to be installed on April 30.

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