Supply 700 MT oxygen to Delhi daily, don’t force us to take cohesive steps: SC to Centre

New Delhi, May 07: The Centre has to supply 700 metric tonnes of oxygen to Delhi the Supreme Court said. It said that the supply of the same would continue until further orders.

The court also pulled up the Centre after the Delhi government complained that it did not receive 70o MT of oxygen even after the court's order. The court cautioned the Centre and said that it will have to provide 700 MT of oxygen everyday until the order is reviewed or modified.

"Don't force us to take coercive steps. Tell your officers to comply with our order of 700 MT of oxygen every day," the Supreme Court told the Centre.

Rahul Mehra, the counsel for the Delhi government said that as of today, 9 am, 89 MT oxygen was received by the Delhi government while 16 MT was in transit.

On Thursday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Delhi consumes 700 tonnes of oxygen per day. "Delhi's daily requirement of oxygen is 700 tonnes. We were constantly asking the central government that at least that much oxygen should be given to us. For the first time yesterday, Delhi got 730 tonnes of oxygen," he had written.

I express my heartfelt gratitude on behalf of the people of Delhi. I request you that Delhi should be given at least this much oxygen daily and there should not be any reduction. The whole of Delhi will be grateful to you, Kejriwal also wrote.

On Thursday the Centre told the Supreme Court that Delhi received 730 MT of oxygen yesterday as against the court's directive for 700 MT. This is also against an allocation of 590 MT of oxygen the Centre also told the court.