SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday claimed that Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant should address oxygen shortage problem in the State. AAP’s State convenor Rahul Mhambre said his party has mentioned from the beginning that the only way out of the oxygen crisis for the Pramod Sawant government is by raising an SOS with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase Goa’s oxygen quota.
Mhambre further pointed out that that despite the High Court proceedings reconfirming what AAP had been saying all along, the oxygen shortage has still not been addressed.
“Last night, despite the High Court’s strictures, the oxygen levels dipped to dangerous levels yet again in not one but multiple COVID wards of GMC. This shows that everyone from the GMC Dean to the Health Secretary to the Heath Minister to the Chief Minister, are only passing the buck. The obvious fact that no one is admitting is that there is simply not enough oxygen supply as per its requirement, so all this conversation about cylinders, trolleys, tanks etc is of no consequence until the Chief Minister demands and obtains more oxygen cylinders from the Centre,” Mhambre alleged.
Pointing out a similar sequence of events that happened in the Supreme Court when the AAP government of Delhi tried to get its required oxygen cylinders quota and stating how SC finally pinned the responsibility on the Central govt, he asked, “Do we want to wait for two more weeks while hundreds more Goans die? Let the court proceedings continue, but why doesn’t Chief Minister Sawant have the courage to raise an SOS with the Centre right away? If he is shy to learn from Arvind Kejriwal, then Sawant should at least see how his fellow BJP Chief Minister Yedyurappa strongly and consistently raised the oxygen cylinders shortage issue with Prime Minister until the Centre increased Karnataka’s quota from 300 MT to 1200 MT.”
Mhambre condemned that instead of fighting for Goans and increasing Goa’s quota, Sawant sending oxygen to other States.
Mhambre said since oxygen distribution is controlled by the Centre, Sawant had no authority to make such a commitment.
He claimed that this only proves that just like the Mhadei or Coal or Mollem issues, the BJP high command had yet again forced Sawant to compromise Goa’s interests over its own agendas.
