For a breath

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For a breath

The distance between life and death is just breath. The people in Goa must be experiencing this more than anybody else in the world. In Goa top hospital, i.e. Goa  Medical College, twenty-six persons have died in the last twenty hours due to lack of oxygen. The Coronavirus has made people realizing the importance of oxygen. It is an irony that people are dying due to lack of oxygen and the deaths are due to human errors. The oxygen tanker drivers who are manning ferrying oxygen trucks are not expert in driving and their blunders are taking innocent patients toll. In Tirupati, two days ago, the driver of the oxygen tanker went on the wrong path and the delay in his return to hospital took the toll of eleven patients. The same is happening in Goa also. Goa health minister Vishwajeet Rane has filed a petition in Mumbai high court’s Goa bench to probe all the Covid-19 mismanagement in the state. Rane is a known enemy of chief minister Pramod Sawant and hence he may have filed a petition. But, the situation can’t be denied that innocent people are dying in Goa due to a shortage of oxygen. Goa government has another problem. The government belongs to BJP and so it has no chance to blame the centre for the lack of oxygen or bottlenecks in oxygen supply.  But this is not the only Goa case. In Delhi also, people are dying on roads without oxygen. Another interesting thing that doctors and health staff have brought forward to the notice that, all the deaths due to oxygen are occurring only in time 3 AM to 6 AM. In the wee hours, the patients require more oxygen and at the same time, they have to struggle to get the life. So, they gasp for oxygen and die with much pain. This is very bizarre as well as extremely agonizing. This is like a nightmare at three AM as all deaths occurring in the same timings. But, the main issue is of providing enough oxygen and as all we know, the central government has built only thirty-three oxygen plants when one sixty-two were sanctioned. This means the centre has failed to recognize the real need for the oxygen that was going to arise. Now, it is difficult to know the death of a patient has happened due to Covid-19 or lack of oxygen. Pramod Sawant is not ready to accept the fact that patients died due to a shortage of oxygen. In fact, he attributed the reason that due to lack of knowledge of drivers of oxygen tankers, they could not reach on the time leading to so many deaths. Sawant may be correct in his judgement, but he can’t escape the responsibility of deaths like Arvind Kejriwal or Uddhav Thakre. They have collectively failed to forecast the real problem like Modi. All parties have politicized the issue of oxygen and nobody has taken any concrete decision to keep the oxygen supply smoothly in the country.  May it is Goa, Maharashtra, Telangana or Delhi, the story is the same.  The delay in refilling oxygen plant or driver deviating path of a hospital are the reasons that have taken the toll of Corona patients. The central government should take oxygen traffic into its own hands but now the centre seems to be shrugging off its responsibility. People want a breath which is the only thing they want at this time and the government is denying them it.