PANAJI
Aam Aadmi Party has attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party for trying to bury the issue of deaths due to oxygen shortage that took place at Covid hospitals in Goa. Alleging “political management” of this criminal negligence, AAP spokesperson Valmiki Naik said that the BJP has actively connived with the Govt and the officials to sweep the issue under the carpet and reduce the political fallout of this massive failure by both the Sawant and the Modi Governments.
Naik stated that the oxygen crisis was due to failure of Modi Govt to supply oxygen and of the Sawant Govt to send out an SOS. Stating that both Govts should have been coordinating to resolve the crisis, Naik said that on May 14, when the oxygen deaths crisis was at its peak, CM Sawant and Ayush Minister Shripad Naik were at the BJP’s core committee meeting instead.
Naik informed that only a timely intervention by a private firm which donated its own 20,000 litre oxygen storage tank from Bicholim Industrial Estate saved the day, otherwise more lives would have been lost due to the Govt’s incompetence.
Stating that the BJP has been trying to bury the oxygen deaths issue not just in Goa but across the country, Naik said: “Two weeks ago, the AAP Govt of Delhi sent a file to the L-G to to approve the setting up of a 6-doctor independent panel to audit the deaths due to oxygen shortage in Delhi hospitals, so that additional compensation could be awarded to those victims families. However, just yesterday, the Central Govt has rejected the proposal. This proves that the Modi Govt has something to hide”.
Naik demanded that accountability must be fixed, as this was criminal negligence in which dozens of lives were lost, adding that additional compensation must be given to the families of victims of oxygen shortage. Naik also repeated the AAP’s previous demand for a judicial commision to investigate the unreported 74 covid deaths in private hospitals, as some of these may have been related to the oxygen shortage issue as well.
