Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today said Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has again rejected the Delhi government's proposal to form a panel to "investigate deaths due to oxygen shortage" in the national capital.
No one can deny that Delhi grappled with an oxygen crisis during the second Covid wave and that people died due to a shortage of oxygen, Mr Sisodia said during an online press conference.
"We had resubmitted a file for the constitution of a panel to probe deaths due to oxygen shortage. The LG (lieutenant governor) is saying that there is no need for that," he said.
The deputy chief minister said that on one hand, the Centre has been asking states to tell how many people died due to oxygen shortage and on the other, "You have not been allowing us to investigate such deaths". "Then how will states tell?" he asked.
"That means the Centre wants us to give in writing that no deaths occurred due to the shortage of oxygen. It will be a big lie," Mr Sisodia added.
He claimed that the Centre was responsible for oxygen mismanagement in April and May and whether it was deliberate or a mistake is a matter of investigation.
The Centre will have to accept that it was responsible for the oxygen crisis, Mr Sisodia said.
The deputy chief minister had last week written to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya that it is difficult to ascertain without a probe if there were any oxygen-related deaths during the second Covid wave, and the Delhi government is seeking fresh approval from the LG to form an expert panel for it.
The Delhi government had in June formed a four-member expert committee to look into the deaths due to the shortage of oxygen during the second wave of the pandemic.
The committee was rejected by the LG.
The Delhi government is likely to conduct a trial for artificial rain in May as part of its efforts to tackle air pollution, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said on Thursday.
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to relax the ban imposed on the manufacture, storage and sale on firecrackers in Delhi-NCR noting air pollution levels had remained alarming for a considerable time.
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced in the assembly on Wednesday that the Delhi government will introduce a new policy for issuing Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates to vehicles from other states, in a bid to tackle air pollution.
Children exposed to higher levels of air pollution in early and mid-childhood may have weaker connections between key brain regions that can highly impact their thinking and controlling capacity, according to a study.
Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Sirsa has accused Arvind Kejriwal's AAP - in power before the BJP won the February election - of allowing more than 1.08 lakh vehicles to run on city roads despite each emitting high levels of carbon monoxide.
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