The oxygen debate in a situation of no air to breath

Udayan Hazarika

(The writer can be reached at udayanhazarika@hotmail.com)

Political debates on the matter of discriminating the States based on BJP or non-BJP category has been a common affair now. Today even it has been a common scene where political personalities sitting at the helm of affairs induce themselves to political debates on the issue concerning life-saving medical oxygen or liquid oxygen, and that too concerning COVID-19 patients that have become a threat to life. Unfortunately, this is what had happened recently when PM Modi simply ignored the call of the Delhi CM to intervene in the matter of transportation of oxygen to Delhi from nearby States. "There are only a few states from where oxygen is supplied to Delhi and where most problems are being noted. I request that if you call the Chief Ministers of those states once, and ask them to not stop our oxygePolitical debates on the matter of discriminating the States based on BJP or non-BJP category has been a common affair now. Today even it has been a common scene where political personalities sitting at the helm of affairs induce themselves to political debates on the issue concerning life-saving medical oxygen or liqu trucks, then the people of Delhi will get oxygen. For 2 crore people of Delhi, I am requesting you with folded hands. You can help us. Please help us," the CM said. However, the appeal fall in the deaf ear and silence on Government's part proves it.

Things also happened similarly when the Delhi Chief Minister appealed to the Central Government for enhancing the quota of oxygen of Delhi due to the unprecedented rise of COVID-19 patients in Delhi which was however replied to in the most insensitive and indifferent manner by the Central Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. He countered the appeal of the Delhi CM saying that Delhi has been given more than their quota.

But the allocation list tells a different story as noted in the last paragraph of this article. The matter has not ended here, the next day it was reported in the media that movement of oxygen consignments to Delhi has been blocked by the neighbouring States of Haryana and UP. If that is so, no political interference inferior to this perhaps could happen in a country like India where people do not hesitate to push others to the threshold of death. The true sense of the appeal of the Delhi CM which fell in the deaf ears for almost three days could be grasped accurately by the Ministry of Health only on 27th April when the Ministry come out with a clarification that "India has sufficient medical oxygen but the real challenge is to transport it to hospitals." On the sideline of these happenings, it may also be noted that in an attempt to defend PM Modi, the Assam Finance Minister H.B. Sarma had also tweeted condemning Kejriwal that it is his failure for not being able to set up the oxygen plants, not PM Modi's. The ground realities are of course different which were perhaps unknown to Shri HB Sarma.

The shortage of oxygen has posed a threat to many lives now suffering from critical COVID-19 especially in Delhi. The second wave of this virus has intensely affected the population and its occurrence was so quick that within a week it infected almost 1.5 lakh of populations in Delhi. As per the Indian Medical Council report, for most of these infected people, oxygen and not the ventilator was to be arranged within a very short duration resulting in heavy demand for liquid medical oxygen.

The shortage of medical oxygen was a situation unknown to this country. India happens to be one of the biggest producers of Oxygen, especially industrial oxygen (LMO). As per an estimate, during the pre-COVID situation, the total demand for liquid medical oxygen was to the tune of 700-800 metric tonnes per day (TPD). But the COVID has generated huge demand requiring about 2800 TPD which is four times the normal demand. The demand has further gone up to 5,000 TPD after the onset of the second wave of COVID-19. But even this requirement is within the capable production limit of the existing plants in India as it can easily go ahead with producing about 7,287 TPD medical oxygen.

So what ails the oxygen producers in tapping their usual capacity? The problem as stated by the Government is not with the production but with the transportation facilities. More than a year has elapsed since the first declaration of covid-19 as a pandemic, and it appears that Government has been sleeping on its lap forgetting completely to pay attention to strengthen the supply system of this life-saving gas. Instead of strengthening the transportation facilities, it paid attention to the construction of new small plants in the hospitals and that too only construction of the plants knowing to vary well that mere setting up of a production unit itself will take more than six months involving stages like identifying spaces and procurement of licenses from industries, health and PCBs while the oxygen is required right at the moment. This is an example of how the government fail to prioritise its demands. Interestingly, the Central Government floated tender bids for 162 PSA plants for producing condensed oxygen from the air in the government hospitals to which, however, even after a lapse of eight months, work orders could not be issued. A few of them as setting up in Delhi till now have not yet been handed over to the Delhi Government reportedly by the Ministry of Health & FW. With the huge funds at the disposal of PM's Care Fund, the Government could have procured LMO carrying tankers in good numbers and cylinders as well to ease the supply situation of LMO.

Among India's highest liquid oxygen producing States are the Oddhisa and Kerala and Jharkhand. From these States, Liquid Medical Oxygen ( LMO) is supplied to various other States having acute demands by refillable cylinders and tankers. The aluminium tankers are in short supply as a result of which the shortage occurs due to delay in transportation. The matter relating to the allocation of the quota of liquid medical oxygen on an all-India basis is regulated by the Government of India. For this purpose, there is a Committee namely empowered Group II (EG-II) under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. The last allocation was made on 21st April in which against the demand of 700 MT of LMO, Delhi was allocated 480 MT of LMO. While against Gujarat's demand of 1,000 MT allocation was made for 975 MT, as against MPs demand of 445 MT, the allocation was made for 543 MT. similarly, against the demand of 300 MT, Karnataka was allocated 300 MT. The above list of allocation indicates the criteria followed in the allocation of LMO.

Assam has no demands for the allocation of LMO. However, till now Assam does not have any exclusive liquid medical oxygen plant. Although the Finance Minister of Assam in his tweet on 24th April had stated categorically that Assam has already installed 8 oxygen plants (5.25 MT a day) after the COVID crises, yet so far the location of these plants have not been disclosed. However, on the enquiry into the matter, it is gathered that there are eight storage units of LMO and not production plants located in various hospitals e.g GMC Hospitals has 3 storage units, JMC (2 units) and Tezpur, Barpeta and Diphu has one unit each.