As the states across the country are fighting for Oxygen cylinders, two states where the caseload is low and have good production capacity – TamilNadu and Odisha, have come forward to help others in these testing times.
Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha, who sailed the state very well throughout the pandemic, told Prime Minister Modi that his government is ready to assist other states. “It is a war-like situation and Odisha will extend all cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 at the national level including ramping up oxygen production to assist other states in this emergency situation,” Patnaik said to the Prime Minister.
The Odisha government has started supplying oxygen to Delhi, and the CM of Delhi, who keeps blaming ‘outsiders’ for every health disaster in Delhi, thanked the Odisha CM. “Recd a call from Sh Naveen Patnaik Ji. He has assured complete support to Delhi in facilitating lifting of Delhi’s quota of oxygen from Odisha. He has put a special offer on the job. Thank u sooo much Sir. Delhi is indeed grateful,” tweeted Kejriwal.
Tamil Nadu government also informed Madras High Court that there is enough oxygen and Remdesivir in the state. “The liquid medical oxygen manufacturing capacity is around 400 metric tonnes a day in Tamil Nadu and the daily medical consumption of oxygen is around 240 tonnes per day. We have a strong healthcare base here in Tamil Nadu. The state has a storage capacity of around 1,200 tonnes,” he said.
Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar reaffirmed that the state has enough oxygen and vaccine supply, and it can share the same with other states. The Madras High Court gave a go-ahead to the government to share the resources with other states and tonnes of oxygen is being diverted from Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh by the Union government. “We are one country. If we have the resources here, we must share it,” a bench comprising chief justice Sanjib Banerjee and Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said.
The cooperation between different states at the time of national health emergency shows the spirit of cooperative federalism in India. A nation of more than 1.3 billion people and more than 35 state-level jurisdictions cannot be governed properly without cooperation, and despite occasional spars and disputes, if the different state governments are willing to cooperate, it shows that the country is being governed by sensible people.
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Except for a few loudmouth leaders from Shiv Sena and Aam Aadmi Party, most of the senior leaders, who are in government, have behaved very maturely. Naveen Patnaik showed what it takes to be a true leader and this also gives a peek into the style of functioning that has kept him at the post of Chief Minister for more than two decades. The Tamil Nadu government led by EPS also behaved very maturely, and this kind of cooperation was expected only from AIADMK – had Stalin led DMK been in power, the picture was expected to be different.
Overall, the spirit of cooperative federalism shows that India is in secure hands and shall continue on the path to become an AtmaNirbhar power which can lead the world.