Decide Minimum Quantity Of Oxygen Buffer Needed For Each District, Karnataka HC Directs State

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the State Government to take a decision to fix the minimum quantity of Oxygen to be maintained as buffer stock in each district to avoid any emergency that may arise.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar said "State Government will have to take a decision on fixing the minimum quantity of buffer stock of oxygen in each district at least on a weekly basis. So that buffer can be used for any emergency situation."

During the hearing, the court orally observed that the Supreme Court direction was of creating buffer stock within four days and now so many days have passed. It went through the chart supplied by the state government of the stock of oxygen available in each district and pointed out that few districts have zero buffer stock.

Advocate Shridhar Prabhu submitted that sourcing of Oxygen from Orissa is three times more expensive and also the time required is more and thus Central Government should allow the state to procure it locally.

Amicus Curiae Vikram Huilgol, also suggested that the Central Government should reconsider the allocation and allow lifting from within Karnataka as there is cyclone in Orissa and it will surely be difficult to lift Oxygen from there.

The bench said "In the written submission filed by state government it is stated with wef from May 23, allocation of Oxygen for state of Karnataka has been revised to 1200 MT. Out of the allocation, a total of 370 MT is allocated from places outside the state of Karnataka. The chart provided by the Central Government shows that only 297 MT could be procured from outside the state between May 10 till May 21."

It added "We therefore direct the State Government to file an affidavit by Monday, setting out the difficulty if any faced by the state government for procuring the quota of Oxygen from outside the state. If the state government is facing difficulty it should approach the Central Government immediately so that the Central government can take decision on grievances."

The court also directed the state government to work out modalities to allow Regional Commissioners who are appointed as nodal officers for districts to procure Oxygen from other revenue divisions if required. The response of the state has to be placed on record by Tuesday.