Chandigarh, April 23, 2021
Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh for the lack of oxygen services in the country including Punjab during the ongoing Covid pandemic, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state president and Lok Sabha Member Bhagwant Mann said that both Modi and Captain had failed miserably to save the precious lives of the people. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Friday, Bhagwant Mann said that it has been more than a year since Covid-19 had hit the country and the virus had infected millions of people last year and thousands had lost their lives. He said that when the doctors and scientists of the country had warned in advance about the re-emergence of Covid pandemic in the country, the Modi-led central government and Captain Amarinder Singh government of Punjab did not provide any necessary medical services to save the lives of the people.
Mann said that as a result, today millions of people across the country, including Punjab, were dying due to lack of treatment. Taking a dig at PM Narendra Modi-led Union government, Bhagwant Mann said that the government could not manage oxygen gas, the most important thing in the Covid pandemic. He said that today, every hospital in the country was suffering from lack of oxygen. Mann said that about 8 months ago, the Union Ministry of Health had issued tenders worth about Rs 200 crore to set up 150 oxygen plants in the country; but even 6 months after the tender was issued, not a single oxygen plant of the Centre has been commissioned. Besides, out of 162 PSA oxygen plants allotted by the government, only 33 plants have been set up,” he added.
He further questioned whether there was a lack of money in Narendra Modi’s Prime Minister Care Fund, in which the people had donated crores of rupees, but the Prime Minister had never presented the account of this fund to the people. Lashing out at Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Mann said that even in the so-called richest state of the country, there was a shortage of medical services. He said that the Congress government has not been able to set up a single hospital with state-of-the-art facilities in the state. “Even in some of the hospitals running, there is neither full staff nor proper medical facilities,” he added.
The AAP leader said that due to the cut-off of oxygen supply to Punjab by the Centre, Haryana and Himachal governments, the entire Punjab was facing shortage of oxygen. “But the irony is that Covid patients in Bathinda hospitals are struggling to get oxygen, but 400 oxygen cylinders are being used every day to dismantle the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant in Bathinda itself,” said Mann. He asked Captain Amarinder Singh whether there was a need to demolish the thermal plant for using oxygen gas or to save the lives of the Covid patients. Mann appealed to Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to stop the use of oxygen for other purposes in the state including Bathinda and to make the supply of oxygen to the hospitals mandatory.
