New Delhi, Jun 25 (IANS): Citing a Supreme Court-appointed audit panel's report, the Delhi BJP leaders on Friday held Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal responsible for deaths due to oxygen shortage in the national capital.
Addressing a press conference, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "Many people have lost their lives due to the oxygen shortage in Delhi's hospitals and Arvind Kejriwal is responsible for these deaths.
We hope the Supreme Court will hold Kejriwal accountable and punish him for the crime he has committed."
Patra alleged that the Kejriwal government completely failed in managing the second wave of Covid in the national capital.
"Arvind Kejriwal's works on only one formula: 100 per cent advertising and zero per cent Covid management. Kejriwal has spent Rs 1,000 crore only on advertising. The biggest thing is he has lied four times about oxygen shortage," he said.
The said report claimed that the Delhi government inflated its Oxygen demand by four times during the peak of the second wave of Covid which affected supply to 12 states.
"Due to Kejriwal's lies, oxygen supplies were reduced to 12 states to meet the demand of Delhi. Had this oxygen been used in other states, many lives could have been saved. This is a heinous crime committed by Kejriwal," Patra said.
The BJP spokesperson also claimed that the report exposed that the Kejriwal was doing politics on oxygen requirements to defame the Union government for this they inflated oxygen demand by four times.
Referring to the report, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan tweeted, "Skeletons of misdeeds in the midst of a pandemic falling out of Aam Aadmi Party's closet. Highly deplorable of Arvind Kejriwal and company to misuse a critical situation to grab eyeballs, deflect responsibility and corner invaluable resources for no good reason."
In a tweet, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, "The SC Sub-group report shows how Delhi government proved to be a complete failure in managing Covid crisis. Gross miscalculation of oxygen requirement at variance with laid down norms also suggest a sinister motive to discredit India's Covid pushback."