India is devastated by the COVID-19 crisis, 195,123 people have died and the country has logged the record peak of 2,813,658 active cases on Monday. This, however, has not stopped the bickering between the Delhi government and the Centre, both trying to score a point over the other. As the city gasps for oxygen and critical patients are being turned away for the lack of it, the Centre today accused the Delhi government of sitting on planned oxygen plants in the national capital and delaying the project. The Delhi government has rubbished the allegation, calling it an “outright lie”.

The Centre, according to the sources, claims that proposed oxygen plants in four hospitals were delayed by the Arvind Kejriwal-led government in Delhi, who did not submit the “site readiness certificates”.

Sources also say that four plants, one each at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital Rohini and Deepa Chand Bandhu Hospital Ashok Vihar, are expected to be completed by April 30. Alleging a major delay from the Delhi government, the central government sources say that the site readiness of these hospitals was delayed by Delhi despite weekly reviews with them since November 2020.

Of the eight PSA (pressure swing absorption) plants to be installed in Delhi, only one plant in Burari Hospital, Kaushik Enclave has been installed on March 17 this year, the sources said. Four others, one each at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Rohini and Deepa Chand Bandhu Hospital, Ashok Vihar, are expected to be completed by April 30, they said.

Also read: Delhi hospitals live from hour to hour as oxygen supplies trickle in

The Centre says eight PSA oxygen generation plants are being installed in Delhi with the support of the PM Cares fund and these are meant to enhance capacity of medical oxygen by 14.4 tonnes.

The Delhi government, which has on several occasions expressed its ‘helplessness’ and has sought the Centre’s intervention over oxygen shortage, has rejected the charges. It is an “outrightly false statements” from the Centre to “hide its abject failure in setting up of oxygen plants in Delhi”, the Delhi government has said, according to NDTV.

“It is well known that the Central government decided to setup 162 PSA plants all over India and issued tenders in October 2020. The plants were to be set up by Union Health Ministry through PM Cares fund, and not a single rupee was given to state governments. All these plants were supposed to have been installed by December 2020 and handed over to state governments,” the website reported quoting the Delhi government sources

Notably, the Delhi government’s authority is limited in this area, as setting up of medium and large scale industries is not allowed in Delhi due to pollution control norms, The Indian Express reported, quoting a Delhi government official.

As charges go back and forth and blame-game peaks, it’s the people of Delhi who are at the receiving end and looking to the governments both at the Centre and the state to help them out of the current misery.