Fighting For Lives Of 2 Crore People Was Crime, Says Kejriwal On BJP’s Allegation Over Oxygen Audit Report

Earlier in the day, the BJP accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of a heinous crime and criminal negligence citing a Supreme Court-appointed audit panel's report on oxygen requirement for Delhi during the second wave.

Published: June 25, 2021 3:51 PM IST

By India.com News Desk | Edited by Manmath Nayak

CM Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi News Update
CM Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Hours after the BJP accused Arvind Kejriwal of a heinous crime and criminal negligence citing a Supreme Court-appointed audit panel’s report, the chief minister said that fighting for the lives of 2 crore people of the national capital as his crime. “My crime – I fought for the lives of 2 crore people of Delhi,” Kejriwal said on the ‘exaggerated oxygen need’ which was mentioned in the Interim Report of Oxygen audit in NCT of Delhi.

Earlier in the day, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra cited the report to note that the Delhi government had demanded 1,140 MT of the life-saving gas during the peak of the second wave even though it could utilise 209 MT.

The requirement was 351 MT even if the panel went by the Delhi government’s formula while it was 289 MT according to the central government’s estimate, he said, adding that only 209 MT was expended while Kejriwal projected a requirement of 1,140 MT.

“Imagine the amount of criminality. This is a heinous crime by Arvind Kejriwal. This is criminal negligence as the panel says he sought four times more oxygen than required. The report has exposed the politics he did to shift blame from his incompetence and failure to deal with COVID-19,” Patra claimed.

However, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accused the BJP of lying about the existence of such a report.

Sisodia denied existence of any report by the Supreme Court-appointed Oxygen Audit Committee about Delhi exaggerating its oxygen requirement by four times during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is no such report. We have spoken to the members of the Oxygen Audit Committee formed by the Supreme Court. They said they have not signed or approved any such report. The BJP is presenting a false report that it prepared at its party headquarters. I challenge them to present such a report which has signatures of the members of the oxygen audit committee,” Sisodia said.

“By doing this, the BJP is not abusing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, but those who lost their family members due to oxygen shortage when coronavirus cases were at its peak,” he said and accused the Union government of mismanagement which led to the oxygen crisis.

Delhi was hit severely by a brutal second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in April and May, claiming a massive number of lives daily, with a shortage in oxygen supply at various city hospitals adding to the woes.

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