Panaji, May 12 (PTI) The Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday said the availability of medical oxygen for COVID-19 patients at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) was grim, and asked the state government to take corrective steps.

It was hearing a bunch of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed by various entities (individuals and organisations).

The bench comprising Justices Nitin W Sambre and M S Sonak said the state government has to ensure that the GMCH is supplied with the required amount of medical oxygen.

"The situation of oxygen at Goa Medical College is quite grim. We have long passed the stage of determining whether patients are suffering from the lack of oxygen or not," the court observed.

Asserting that oxygen supply should be made available to the patients in GMCH, the judges said that the right to life is a fundamental one guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.

"There is, therefore, a corresponding duty cast on the State to ensure that this life is not extinguished on account of inability on the part of the State to supply oxygen to these unfortunate victims of the pandemic," the court said.

The state officials repeatedly assured us that there was sufficient oxygen available but the problem was mainly of logistics of the supply chain, it said.

"At this stage, we do not wish to go into the projections of oxygen requirement made by the Under Secretary on one hand and the Dean on the other, though, prima facie we are inclined to go by the projections of the Dean who is actually functioning from the GMC and each day witnessing the catastrophe unfolding before his eyes," the bench said.

In any case, we feel that such logistical problems must be got over at the earliest so that this tragedy of victims gasping for breath in the presence of their near and dear ones and in several cases even dying for want of necessary oxygen supply is arrested at the earliest, the court observed.

"Goa will have to and is hereby directed to take all necessary steps to ensure that such logistical difficulties are overcome at the earliest and there are no casualties for want of a supply of oxygen to the pandemic victims," it said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)