Petition filed with NHRC over deaths due to lack of O2 across India

Ghaziabad: A petition has been filed against the Central government with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) over the deaths caused by Covid-19 due to non-availability of oxygen. The petition has been filed by Human Rights activist Vishnu Kumar Gupta.

The petition said, "District hospitals and private hospitals in the country have neither installed oxygen plants nor have oxygen storage facilities whereas Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants can be set up at these places in lesser time and cost in a single month."

"The PSA oxygen plant costs exactly the amount which many hospitals spend every year to procure oxygen for themselves."

"There is a shortage of oxygen due to lack of its buffer stock in our country. If the government had taken into account the common man's Right to Life guaranteed in the constitution amid last year's coronavirus crisis, such a catastrophic situation would not have arisen had the buffer stock of oxygen and its production/supply been taken care of."

Advocate Gupta said, "The Central government has failed to assess the implications of this pandemic. The third wave of Covid-19 is expected in October 2021 so it becomes primary responsibility of the government that keeping in mind the current and future oxygen supply, it must make sure that PSA plants are set up expeditiously in all government district hospitals and private hospitals in the country. "

"Saving the lives of the elderly and young people suffering from heart, cancer, hypertension and diabetes coupled with Covid-19 should also be the foremost duty of the Central government."

"Therefore, a request has been made to the NHRC to order the Central Medical and Health Department to get patients suffering from other comorbidities, including Covid-19, vaccinated immediately on priority basis."

Gupta has also sent a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath apprising him of the need to improve the state's worrisome situation and urgently set up PSA oxygen plants.