Kriti Agrawal
On Wednesday the Karnataka High Court remarked that a buffer oxygen stock may have prevented the tragedy at the Chamarajanagar hospital, where twenty-three patients died due to a lack of oxygen.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar also claimed that the Centre is not allocating even necessary quantities of oxygen to the State during the covid-19 crisis.
The Court speculated, “Maybe the Chamarajanagar incident would not have occurred if there had been a buffer stock of oxygen.”
The Bench went on to say that the Government of India has not explained why, despite the Supreme Court’s orders, there is no buffer stock (of oxygen) in Karnataka.
Concerning the Chamarajanagar incident, the Court formed a committee led by retired Justice AN Venugopal Gowda to investigate it and send a report to the Court.
“A former judge of this court, A N Venugopal Gowda, chairs the KSLSA Committee. It is appropriate for this committee to investigate the incident that occurred in Chamarajanagar. We direct the Chief Secretary, who is in custody of the records, to grant access to the committee headed by A N Venugopal Gowda. We expect that the committee will submit its report by next Monday. Needless to say, state government officials will work with the committee. The committee’s ultimate goal would be to conduct fact-finding investigations. It would be beneficial for the state to ensure that such unwarranted incidents do not occur in the future.”
