Now, Congress MP Vivek Tankha flags issue of oxygen shortage in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur

Congress MP from Madhya Pradesh Vivek Tankha on Sunday accused the BJP-led state government of ignoring Jabalpur in the supply of medical oxygen amid the COVID-19 surge.

Tankha, who hails from Jabalpur, in a Twitter post tagged a media report that mentioned about the state government's decision on Saturday to airlift empty oxygen tankers from Bhopal and Gwalior along with Indore and send them to Ranchi for re-filling.

Referring to the report, the Rajya Sabha member in his tweet said, "Is Jabalpur not in Madhya Pradesh".

Notably, five COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment in the ICU of a private hospital in Jabalpur died on Friday allegedly after the stock of medical oxygen at the facility got over, police earlier said.

A government release issued on Saturday claimed that there was sufficient medical oxygen available in Jabalpur. In the last two days, 20 KL (kilolitre) of medical oxygen was received from Rourkela (Odisha) and 15 KL from Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) by two tanker trucks. One more tanker truck carrying 20 KL of medical oxygen is expected to reach Jabalpur from Rourkela (Odisha) on Sunday, it added.

National Herald had earlier reported that the BJP-ruled state does not have a single medical oxygen plant.

In another report, National Herald had spoken to Siddharth Tiwari, Congress candidate from Rewa for the Lok Sabha polls held in 2019, who had pointed out that shortage of oxygen was a huge cause of concern in the state, but it was only part of the collapse of the health care system in Madhya Pradesh.

“Attributing the issues being faced just to the shortage of oxygen would be undermining the crisis. The total health care system in the state has collapsed. Beds are not available in hospitals; testing is not being done and oxygen supply from neighbouring districts has been stopped,” he had said, adding that it was a “monumental mismanagement of the crisis by the state govt.

There have also been allegations of fudging of data related to the COVID situation by the state government.