As Tamil Nadu is driving through the dearth of oxygen supply to treat the Corona patients, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has on Sunday written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the latter to cancel the order of diverting the oxygen produced in the state to its neighbors. 

Edappadi Palaniswami's demand to the Prime Minister has come days after the Central government ordered the state to divert the oxygen produced in Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The Chief Minister has urged the Prime Minister to cancel the order of diversion by citing that Tamil Nadu is under the incessant requirement of oxygen to treat the virus-hit patients amid the exponential rise of cases and infections. 

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Edappadi Palaniswami said that the state is taking all efforts to reduce positive cases but considering the current surge, the state is in the requirement of 450 tonnes of oxygen, which is more than the state's current production capacity of 400 tonnes. He further said that in the latest national medical oxygen allotment plan, the allocation for Tamil Nadu has been fixed at 220 tonnes, which is a wrong allotment.

He stated that based on this wrong allotment, 80 tonnes of liquid oxygen was diverted from manufacturing facilities located at Sriperumbudur to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. "As per Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organizations data, the consumption of oxygen in Tamil Nadu has already reached 310 tonnes, as against the inadequate allotment of 220 tonnes made to the state", the Chief Minister added. 

By citing that the government has been taking efforts to provide adequate and uninterrupted oxygen supply amid a sharp surge in the number of active cases, the Chief Minister said that the Center has diverted the oxygen to the states that have fewer active cases than Tamil Nadu. He highlighted that the state has the second biggest caseload in South India and the Center's order to divert the oxygen from the state has no justification. 

The Chief Minister further noted that such diversion of liquid oxygen from the state would lead to a major crisis in Chennai and across the state. He had demanded the Prime Minister to immediately cancel the order of the diversion of 80 kiloliters of oxygen from the Sriperumbudur plant to other states. According to reports, Inox Air Products is one of the leading oxygen suppliers that the governments rely on to fix the crisis of oxygen shortage. 

It has a plant in Sriperumbudur in the outskirts of Chennai and the Union Health Ministry has recently ordered to divert the oxygen from  Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The move had shocked the opposition parties and they had castigated the Center for such a prejudicial approach towards the state and state health minister Vijayabaskar had also said that the Center had acted without consulting the state government in this regard. 

As the outrage against the Center escalated, the Chief Minister has now written to the Prime Minister demanding the latter to cancel the order of diversion. However, ironically, the Chief Minister has admitted that the state is running short of oxygen in his letter to Modi while the state government had last week asserted to the Madras High Court that there is no shortage of oxygen in Tamil Nadu. 

On Sunday, the state has reported 15,659 cases, which had become the highest single-day rise recorded by the state since the outbreak began. The state has been battling the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and according to the health department, Tamil Nadu has reported 10,81,988 cases so far as of Sunday of which 1,05,180 are active cases, 9,63,251 have been discharged, and 13,557 had succumbed to the viral infection.