The Supreme Court has pushed for setting up a National Task Force to assess and recommend the need and distribution of oxygen for the entire country.

The task force has leading professionals related to the healthcare domain who will provide their assessment to the Government of India.

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Without even understanding the details, some agenda-driven ‘journalists’ and commentators tried to show this as a failure of the government and a rap from the Supreme Court, it was noted.

“The rationale for constituting a Task Force at a national level is to facilitate public health response to the pandemic based on scientific and specialised domain knowledge. We expect leading experts in the country shall associate with the Task Force, as members and resource persons,” the court said in its final order adding, “This will facilitate a meeting of minds and the formulation of scientific strategies to deal with an unprecedented human crisis.”

Such people are totally blind to facts. It is the government, through SG Tushar Mehta, that has suggested the creation of this task force.

Without even knowing such basic facts about the government being open to involving experts to work with it, some people are running their own agendas around such news, it was noted further.

The top court said in its order passed on May 6 uploaded on Saturday that the Secretary of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will be ex-officio member of the task force.

The bench said that other members of the task force will include Bhabatosh Biswas, former Vice Chancellor, West Bengal University of Health Sciences, Kolkata; Devender Singh Rana, Chairperson, Board of Management, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi; Devi Prasad Shetty, Chairperson and Executive Director, Narayana Healthcare, Bengaluru; Gagandeep Kang, Professor, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu; and JV Peter, Director, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

The remaining five members are Naresh Trehan, Chairperson and Managing Director, Medanta Hospital and Heart Institute, Gurugram; Rahul Pandit, Director, Critical Care Medicine and ICU, Fortis Hospital, Mulund (Mumbai, Maharashtra) and Kalyan (Maharashtra); and Dr Saumitra Rawat, Chairman & Head, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology and Liver Transplant, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi; Shiv Kumar Sarin of Institute of Liver and Biliary Science (ILBS), Delhi; and Zarir F Udwadia of Hinduja Hospital, Breach Candy Hospital Mumbai.