Arvind Kejriwal spent crores on self-promotion, not oxygen: Congress

NEW DELHI: As Delhi keeps on gasping for oxygen, the Congress alleged that both the Centre and the state governments have failed the people of Delhi and Kejriwal has spent crores of rupees on advertisements. Congress leader Ajay Maken, who has been a Minister in the Delhi and Union governments informed, "Of the eight PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) oxygen plants planned for Delhi, only one has been set up," the Union Health Ministry told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday.

"The admission comes when oxygen shortage has left Covid-19 patients gasping in Delhi. PSA units are small oxygen generation units which are usually attached to hospitals in their premises or nearby. Unfortunately, the Delhi Government did not deem fit to even sanction a single PSA oxygen plant. Not only this, the Union and the state governments both failed to even sanction and construct even a single oxygen storage plant in Delhi," Maken said.

He said that in neighbouring Congress ruled Rajasthan, 37 PSA oxygen plants were sanctioned out of which 24 are up and running; the rest 13 are in advanced stages of completion. The Rajasthan Government had set up seven high-capacity oxygen storage plants in the last one year.

Maken alleged that the Delhi government spent Rs 355 crore on self-publicity last year. It has gone up to Rs 467 crore this year. In total they are spending a whopping amount of Rs 822 crore, he said.

This is the reason that all the news channels and newspapers are flooded with their advertisements. This amount if used to augment the oxygen supply, could have added 750 MT of additional oxygen generation capacity. Delhi would not only have been self-sufficient but could have even helped the neighbouring states in this time of crisis, Maken added. (IANS)

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