Indian states have stepped up collaborating with each other with Telangana and Odisha showing the way. An Indian Air Force (IAF) plane on Friday took off for Odisha from Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad with empty tankers to urgently ferry medical oxygen to the State.

The State Health Minister, Eatala Rajender and Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar supervised the airlifting operation at the airport. The details like number of tankers and the aircraft pressed into service were not immediately available.

The State Industry Minister K.T. Rama Rao took to Twitter to compliment the Health Minister and Chief Secretary for supervising the airlifting of oxygen tankers. He said this would save three days and many valuable lives.

The Telangana State Health Minister, Eatala Rajender and Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar supervising the airlifting operation at the airport

The Minister, who himself tested positive for Covid on Friday, said this was the first time in India that oxygen tankers were being airlifted.

This came a day after the Health Minister criticized the Centre for allocating oxygen to the state from Odisha as the tankers will have to cover a distance of over 1,300 km. He wanted the Centre to provide oxygen from manufacturing units in neighbouring states.

Rajender had also said that the Centre would be responsible for any shortage of oxygen in the state. He said though oxygen allocation to Telangana is 384 tonnes per day, the State is getting only 260-270 tonnes.

He, however, said there were no deaths of Covid patients in the state due to lack of oxygen as the authorities were effectively tackling the situation.

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(IANS)