Chennai, Apr 22 (IANS): The first bench of the Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy took suo moto notice of newspaper reports about transfer of oxygen cylinders from Tamil Nadu to other states even as the state is reeling under the surging Covid cases.

The High Court bench asked the state advocate general, Vijay Narayan to get a report on the measures taken by the state to handle the crisis. The court also took exception to the shortage of Remdesivir and ventilators.

The bench directed the state to inform it about the steps taken by the government regarding oxygen supply. The court observed that Tamil Nadu has several industries which can supply oxygen and that there is proper infrastructure to transport this oxygen.

Vedanta Industries, Tuticorin, has already written to both the Tamil Nadu government and the Union health ministry that it can supply oxygen from its Sterlite Copper plants which were shut down. The company has offered to supply 1000 tons of oxygen daily.

The court said there need not be any confusion and that the state has to control the situation.