Jaipur, April 28
Rajasthan High Court will take up on April 30 the petition filed by Advocate Poonam Chand Bhandari alleging discrimination by the Centre in allotting medical oxygen and lifesaving drugs to the state. Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanti and Judge Indrajit Singh will hear the matter on Friday.
Advocate Bhandari on April 23 submitted a petition in the Rajasthan High Court alleging that the Centre has allocated 1,63,500 Remdesivir injections to Gujarat with 84,126 patients, while only 26,500 injections have been allocated to Rajasthan when the active patients are more than 96,000. Similarly, there was disparity in the allocation of liquid oxygen.
While 970 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen was allocated to Gujarat when it had 84,000 patients, Rajasthan was allocated 80 metric tons of oxygen when the patients here were more than 96,000.
When Rajasthan required 250 metric tons of oxygen, the central government allocated only 205 metric tons of oxygen to the state against 1661 metric tons allotted to Gujarat, the petition said.
Bhandari sought the intervention of the High Court in the matter, demanding allocation of oxygen and life-saving medicines on the basis of the number of sick people as all are citizens of India and all states are equal before the government.
Bhandari prayed to the Court that the Government of India may kindly be directed to provide the required oxygen, liquid oxygen and Remdesivir injections to Rajasthan at the earliest. The State of Rajasthan may be directed to utilize the same in the best interest of the public at large, he said.
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