West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Prime Minister Modi seeking the Centre's help in meeting the state's medical oxygen demand.
In the second letter that the Bengal CM has written to the PM in the two days since she's taken oath of office, Banerjee said that the state's oxygen requirement will go up to 550 metric tonnes (MT) per day in a week.
"It (consumption of medical oxygen) has gone up to 470 MT per day in the last 24 hours and expected to increase to 550 MT in the next seven to eight days", said Banerjee in the letter.
The Chief Minister added that instead of increasing supply of oxygen to West Bengal, the government has increased allocation to other states from the oxygen production in Bengal. The oxygen supplied to other states from Bengal has increased from 230 MT to 360 MT in the last ten days, but the allocation to Bengal has been kept stagnant at 308 MT, she said.
Earlier the CM had said that oxygen produced in Bengal should be kept for its people and not transported to other states.
In the letter, she mentions that Bengal's medical oxygen production is about 560MT a day.
On 5 May, the day she took oath, Banerjee had written to PM flagging shortage of essential COVID drugs, medical oxygen and oxygen cylinders in the state.
COVID-19 cases have seen a surge in Bengal after the recently concluded Assembly elections which were stretched for eight-phases over a month.
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