With several state governments announcing curfew/lockdown in the hope to break the infection chain, the Delhi High Court has slammed the central government crisis management of the COVID-19 situation as poor and termed it as ‘simply bad planning’.
The court expressed extreme displeasure over the “huge wastage” of vaccines and asked the Centre to open vaccination to everyone who wants to get vaccinated to ensure there is no wastage.
“We hope the Centre is applying its mind based on the needs of each state when deciding where to send resources,” it added.
While slamming the centre, the High Court noted that “people will have blood on their hands”, if medical resources are diverted from the needful without mindful planning. A bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Pillai said that “we will be doomed” if any non-application of mind in allocation and diversion of medical resources is done.
The Centre informed the Delhi High Court that to ensure continuous oxygen supply for medical purposes, the use of oxygen by industries has been banned from 22nd April onwards with an added exception for certain critical industries.
On this, the court questioned the Centre’s decision of delayed ban on the use of oxygen for industrial purposes and said “why wait till 22nd April to ban the use of oxygen by industries? Why not immediately? People need oxygen now.”
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“If nothing is done to augment oxygen supply, the country will head for a bigger disaster; priority has to be to save lives,” the High Court noted.
The court also asked the Centre to act against medicine hoarding and to come out with some regulations on the same.
The Centre also informed that the government is taking all possible steps to provide feasible assistance to state governments as and when required.