By Archana Sharma
Jaipur, Apr 21 (IANS): The rising number of COVID patients and the short supply of oxygen in hospitals have brought the ruling Congress and the BJP face to face in Rajasthan.
A day after health minister Raghu Sharma accused the Central government of adopting "a biased attitude" in supplying oxygen to the state, BJP state president Satish Poonia shot a tweet sharing a news clip informing how UP CM Yogi Adityanath is installing 13 oxygen plants in the state and advising people to avoid panicking.
Without mentioning the name of CM Ashok Gehlot, he said, "To hide his failures, the Chief Minister, who has been cursing the Central Government, makes every demand from the Centre, which are fulfilled, but on the one hand, here is the CM of Uttar Pradesh who have not only controlled the crime in the state but has resolved the grave challenge of oxygen crisis by bringing up new oxygen plants in record times."
Similarly, union minister Gajendra Singh Shekahwat, who is MP from Jodhpur, the constituency of CM Ashok Gehlot, also shot a tweet on the Oxygen crisis without mentioning the Rajasthan CM and said, "Chief Ministers working! While the best CM of Maharashtra, an IIT graduate CM of Delhi and a farmer leader CM of Punjab are busy cribbing and crying fowl to the media, a saffron clad CM of UP, despite being in quarantine is getting oxygen plants constructed for his state."
He did not stop here and on Thursday shot another tweet, saying, "Four states, Four CMs - Two offering solutions, while Two busy passing the buck. That's all the difference."
In the tweet, he shared four news clippings, which carries news of UP CM announcing free COVID vaccines for people over 18 years of age group, Assam minister promising free vaccines for people under 18-45 years of age group, Kerala CM writing to Modi to provide free vaccines to states and Delhi CM urging central govt to resolve Oxygen crisis in capital of india at the earliest.
On Wednesday, State Health Minister Raghu Sharma said that oxygen plants are under the Centre's control, and while the Bhiwadi plant generates 120 metric tonnes of oxygen, Rajasthan gets only 65 MT.
He further alleged that a quota for neighbouring Gujarat has been fixed at 1,200 metric tonnes, while the supply of Oxygen is limited to 124 metric tonnes for Rajasthan. "Meanwhile, out of this, we are getting only 65 metric tonnes of oxygen," he said.