Death of Covid patients due to oxygen shortage no less than a genocide: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday rebuked the Uttar Pradesh government for its handling of covid crisis and likened the deaths due to oxygen shortage to genocide.

“Death of Covid patients just for non supplying of oxygen to the hospitals is not less than a genocide by those who have been entrusted the task to ensure continuous procurement and supply chain of the liquid medical oxygen,” a bench of Justices Ajit Kumar and Siddhartha Varma said, according to Live Law.  The court also ordered a probe into incidents of death reported from Meerut and Lucknow hospitals.

“The state of affairs that we have come to know about the management of online portal created by the Government today casts a shadow upon the Covid Hospital Management,” Live Law quoted the court as saying.

Referring to the reports of harassment meted out to poor citizens begging for oxygen, the court said, “We find these news items showing a quite contrary picture to one claimed by the Government that there was sufficient supply of oxygen.”

The court also asked why the government could not distribute the Oxygen cylinder, Remdesivir Injection and Oximeter confiscated from illegal possessions to the distressed families.

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Last week, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had claimed that there was no shortage of oxygen in any private or public COVID hospital in Uttar Pradesh.

“There is no shortage of oxygen in any COVID hospital, be it private or government. The problem is black marketing and hoarding, which will be tackled with a heavy hand. We are going to conduct an oxygen audit in collaboration with IIT Kanpur, IIM Lucknow and IIT BHU for proper monitoring of oxygen. The system of live tracking of oxygen demand, supply and distribution will be implemented,” the chief minister had said.