Centre giving 'false statements' to hide abject 'failure' in setting up of PSA oxygen plants in Delhi: Kejriwal govt

New Delhi [India], April 26 : Calling the Centre's claim of Delhi government delaying the site readiness for installing eight Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plants in the national capital with the support of the PM CARES Fund as "outrightly false", Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led government on Sunday said only one plant has been made operational till date.
"It is extremely unfortunate that at a time when Delhi government is working closely with Centre to bridge the gap in Centre's allocated quota of oxygen for Delhi, Central government is giving outrightly false statements to hide its abject failure in setting up of PSA oxygen plants in Delhi," the Kejriwal government said in a statement.
The Delhi government said it is well known that the Central government decided to set up 162 PSA plants all over India and issued tenders for the same in October 2020.
"The plants were to be set up by Union Health Ministry through PM Cares fund, and not a single rupee was given to state governments. All these plants were supposed to have been installed by December 2020 and handed over to state governments. However, the Central government gave the contract for 140 of these plants to a single vendor, who ran away. As a result, across India not even 10 of these 162 plants have been made operational till date," it added.
Talking about Delhi, the Kejriwal government said that seven of the eight plants in the national capital were to be set up at Delhi government hospitals, and one at Central government hospital - Safdarjung.
"After multiple follow-ups with the Central government, plants for five hospitals were delivered in early March 2021. Typically these plants take three to four days for installation. However, once again, the vendor was non-responsive and after multiple follow-ups with the Centre, only one of the five plants has been made operational to date," it said.
The Delhi government alleged that for the remaining two hospital locations, the plants have not even been received on site.
"We are shocked to learn that Central government is now making the excuse of site certificate not being available from the Delhi government as a reason for delay in plants. This has never been brought to Delhi government's notice and is an outright lie," it added.
The Kejriwal government also said, "The fact that the PSA plant has not been made operational at even Centre's own Safdarjung hospital shows that Centre is caught in the web of its own lies."
In order to augment the medical oxygen capacity of Delhi amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, eight PSA oxygen generation plants are being installed in the national capital with the support of the PM CARES Fund, official sources had told ANI.
These plants will enhance the capacity of medical oxygen by 14.4 metric tonnes. Of the eight PSA plants to be installed in Delhi, one was already installed at Burari Hospital, Kaushik Enclave on March 17.
Four plants, one each at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Rohini and Deepa Chand Bandhu Hospital, Ashok Vihar are expected to be completed by April 30.
The sources said it is the Delhi government that delayed the site readiness despite weekly reviews since November last year. For Ambedkar Nagar Hospital, Dakshinpuri, the site has been readied as late as April 19 by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government.
The site readiness certificate of Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital, Narela has not been submitted by the Delhi government yet, sources said.