Hyderabad,: The Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has conducted a review meeting on the supply of Oxygen cylinders to the hospitals in the Telangana State.
In view of certain complaints being received regarding black marketing of oxygen cylinders leading to possible shortage in supply to hospitals, the meeting decided that Joint Teams of officers consisting of Drug Control Administration, Task Force of Hyderabad city police, Director of Public Health and Deputy
Chief Controller of Explosives will inspect hospitals and dealers to assess whether sale and utilization of oxygen cylinders has been in conformity with guidelines. The teams will initiate prosecution in case any violation of rules is noticed.
It was decided to advise all the hospitals which are treating Covid-19 patients to migrate to cryogenic liquid oxygen tanks/vessels in order to avoid any likelihood of bottlenecks due to usage of cylinders. It was reiterated that traders who are holding the stock of oxygen cylinders shall posses license from PESO, failing which they will also be prosecuted under Explosives Act.
In this regard, the Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad informed that, Commissioner’s Task Force had already commenced action and two cases had already been booked under various laws such as Drugs
& Cosmetics Act 1940, IPC, Disaster Management Act and Indian Explosives Act 1984.
M. Raghunandan Rao, Commissioner, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Neetu Kumari Prasad, Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, Anjani Kumar, Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, S.M. Kulkarni, Dy. Chief Controller of Explosives, Hyderabad and Dr. Ramesh Reddy, Director of Medical Education participated in the meeting.