Oxygen tankers meant for Madhya Pradesh being stopped by officials in other states, claims CM Chouhan
Madhya Pradesh is one of the states severely affected by the Covid-19 disease. And now, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has claimed that some officials in other states are blocking oxygen tankers from coming to Madhya Pradesh. Without naming the states, Chouhan appealed to their respective chief ministers to take strict action against such officials who were blocking tankers without any reason.
“Yesterday oxygen tankers for Madhya Pradesh were blocked in several states by some officials. Due to this, time is being wasted and there is a risk of some patients succumbing to the disease,” Chouhan tweeted on Monday and said this is unfair and also a crime.
On Sunday, Madhya Pradesh added 12,248 fresh Covid-19 disease cases – the highest-ever single-day spike which took the caseload to over 408,000. Sixty-six more people succumbed to Covid-19 on Sunday and the total deaths are nearing 4,600. As many as 3,34,947 have recovered so far.
Madhya Pradesh is currently seeing a war of words between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government and the Congress after a video of state minister Tulsiram Silawat went viral on Sunday after he and his supporters were seen stopping an oxygen tanker in Indore to perform a puja and other rituals. The tanker arrived from the neighbouring state of Gujarat. In the video clip, Silawat along with his supporters were also seen posing in front of the tanker for photographs.
Congress spokesperson Neelabh Shukla on Sunday alleged Silawat stopped the tanker for one hour to “quench his thirst for media coverage” and added the same act was repeated when the tanker reached a filling station. “They did this nautanki when there is an acute shortage of oxygen in hospitals and serious patients are gasping for breath,” Shukla told news agency PTI.
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Refuting his claims, Indore BJP chief said the tanker was not even stopped for five minutes and was quickly sent to the filling station. The video of offering prayers was at the time the tanker was being emptied, Randive said.
Meanwhile, 12 patients died in a medical college in the Shahdol district on Saturday night reportedly due to a shortage of oxygen. However, state medical minister Vishwas Sarang said there was no shortage of oxygen and the patients died due to medical complications. “An inquiry has been ordered in the matter to know the cause of the death of so many patients in one night,” Sarang told Hindustan Times on Sunday.
