Privilege motion against MoS over no deaths due to oxygen shortage' remarks

Congress leader K C Venugopal on Thursday moved a privilege motion against Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar for misleading the parliament on deaths due to shortage of oxygen in the country amid COVID-19 outbreak.

He said the entire country witnessed how people were scrambling for oxygen and many patients in several hospitals died due to the shortage of the life-saving gas during the second wave of coronavirus.

"I have moved a privilege motion to the Rajya Sabha chairman demanding action against the Minister of State for Health due to misinformation given to the Rajya Sabha on my starred question," he told reporters here.

Venugopal said he had asked a question on how many people died in the country due to lack of oxygen, but the minister replied that there was no such death.

"This is totally baseless and against the truth because we have enough evidence in the public domain. You can see that their own Goa minister quoted that so many people died due to oxygen shortage. Their Karnataka minister also said so," he said, adding that ministers in Haryana and Andhra Pradesh also admitted deaths due to shortage of oxygen.

The Congress leader added that the MoS misled the House with false information.

That is why I have moved a privilege motion asking the chairman to send it to the privileges committee for a thorough inquiry," he said.