PORVORIM: Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai along with his two Goa Forward Party colleagues Vinod Palyekar and Jayesh Salgaonkar rushed to the well of the House on Monday demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on account of the latter’s massive failure to tackle the oxygen shortage in the State, which led to many avoidable deaths of COVID-19 patients.
Waving Herald which published the news item, “GMC failed to raise oxygen shortage on time: Probe report on O2 shortage”, Sardesai said it is now beyond doubt that the BJP government had failed miserably to manage the oxygen supply and as a result many patients lost their lives.
Sardesai charged that the Chief Minister is callous and not serious about the health or lives of Goans, and hence he should resign immediately taking responsibility for all the deaths which took place due to shortage of oxygen.
Later Sardesai told media persons that between May 10 and 14, around 80 people had died during the ‘dark hours’ due to shortage of oxygen. On May 11, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane had said the High Court should probe the oxygen shortage. “Hence, it was clear that there was a shortage of oxygen, but the Chief Minister tried to narrate a different story to cover up his failures. Now this report has exposed the unprofessional and indifferent conduct of the Goa government,” he said.
The three-member oxygen shortage probe committee headed by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Goa Director, Dr B K Mishra, has exposed the unprofessional conduct of Goa government over procuring oxygen which led to this terrible tragedy in the State. The committee observed that the government did not raise any issue of lack of oxygen at the appropriate time or sought augmentation of oxygen, except putting their demand in affidavit before the High Court.
