The report mentions that there is no need for LMO generating plants, but we need more LMO storage tanks.
This is shocking as it was to save private players like M/s Scoop, who supply Oxygen, and if LMO is produced here, they will be out of business and politicians and bureaucrats would not be able to rake in the moolah.
Also, the Committee recommends the appointment of a private agency for managing Oxygen. This will again bring in someone like M/s Scoop to commit another financial fraud in GMC.
We understand that the Committee’s appointment by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant was actually a political witchhunt against Health Minister Vishwajit Rane. The CM appointed the Committee as he felt threatened by Rane, who was vying for Chief Minister’s chair then.
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
The three-member Committee was appointed under the Chairmanship of Dr B.K. Mishra, Director, IIT, comprising, Dr V.N. Jindal, Ex-Dean, Goa Medical College, and Dr Tariq Thomas, Secretary (Urban Development), as its Members to inquire into the oxygen supply issues at Goa Medical
College.
By the order dated 13/5/2021, this Committee was given the mandate to submit its report within 3 days. But the Committee took ages to submit a report, and that too was after the High Court intervention.
The report by the Committee has found no culprits in the Oxygen shortage and has said that the shortage was due to the changeover time from empty trolleys to new ones. After this report, the families have lost the slightest hope of getting justice for the cruel deaths of their kins.
The report mentions that there is no need for LMO generating plants, but we need more LMO storage tanks.
This is shocking as it was to save private players like M/s Scoop, who supply Oxygen, and if LMO is produced here, they will be out of business and politicians and bureaucrats would not be able to rake in the moolah.
Also, the Committee recommends the appointment of a private agency for managing Oxygen. This will again bring in someone like M/s Scoop to commit another financial fraud in GMC.
We understand that the Committee’s appointment by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant was actually a political witchhunt against Health Minister Vishwajit Rane. The CM appointed the Committee as he felt threatened by Rane, who was vying for Chief Minister’s chair then.
However, the laymen and the victims’ families felt the CM had appointed the Committee to find out the reasons for the shortage. People felt the Committee would name culprits like M/s Scoop Industries Private Limited, the sole Oxygen provider to all hospitals, including GMC.
Now the question arises why did the Committee not name M/s Scoop for the shortage? Under whose political pressure was the report written?
It was no secret that while the GMC’s oxygen requirement was around 40 metric tonnes, Scoop was able to supply just 10 to 15 metric tonnes.
Why were his incapability and inefficiency not written in the report? Why does the government not make the report public for all to know what the Committee has submitted?
The report was nothing less than an eyewash. The Committee was only to tell Vishwajit Rane, who is the boss.
After the committee report, it is now crystal clear that not just M/s Scoop but Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, GMC Dean Dr Shivanand Bandekar, Health Director Jose D’Sa, all have blood on their hands.
Several families lost their earning hands. Several kids have been orphaned. Several have lost mother, father, husband, wife, sister, daughter simply because of the inefficiency of this government, CM, health minister, and many others.
The only people who worked selflessly during the crisis were the health workers, who, despite the shortage of Oxygen, PPE kits, sanitisers and medicines, continued to save lives, staying away from homes for months together.
