Allahabad High Court seeks response from Ghaziabad District Magistrate on plea alleging Oxygen diversion by Addl District Magistrate

The Allahabad High Court has sought the response of District Magistrate, Ghaziabad on a petition filed by BJP MLA, Nand Kishore alleging involvement of Additional District Magistrate (ADM), Ghaziabad in diversion of oxygen cylinders from the district to other States (Nand Kishore v. State of UP)..A Division Bench comprising Justices Sunita Agarwal and Sadhna Rani (Thakur) directed the District Magistrate, Ghaziabad to file his affidavit in this regard within two weeks. It was also informed by Additional Advocate General (AAG), Goyal that a committee has been instituted to look into the matter and inquiry is already going on. "It is directed that the District Magistrate, Ghaziabad shall file his personal affidavit within a period of two weeks bringing on record the statement made by him in the written instructions sent to Sri Manish Goyal. The inquiry report in the inquiry instituted by him on the allegations made in the complaint dated 1.5.2021 filed by the petitioner shall also be brought on record with the said affidavit by the next date fixed," the court directed. .Kishore, the BJP MLA from Loni constituency, Ghaziabad, alleged that the Additional District Magistrate and other connected local authorities had diverted Ghaziabad district's oxygen quota to Delhi and Haryana. It was submitted this has led a shortage of oxygen in the constituency and people are losing their lives. The petitioner also contended that a complaint in writing was made to the Senior Superintendent of Police,(SSP) Ghaziabad on May 1 asking him to conduct an inquiry into the allegations but nothing came out of the same prompting the petitioner to approach the High Court. .He, therefore, sought a high level inquiry, preferably by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the allegations. .On the other hand, Manish Goyal ,Additional Advocate General submitted that an order has already been passed by the District Magistrate, Ghaziabad appointing Asmita lal, Chief Development Officer, Ghaziabad as inquiry officer to probe the allegations raised by the petitioner. It was also contended that there there was no shortage of oxygen in Loni constituency. There is only one COVID designated hospital having twelve beds and no complaint of shortage in oxygen supply to the said hospital has been received by the Committee, he said. .It was also informed that all the submissions were based on the written instructions given by the District Magistrate, Ghaziabad. Th Court said that all the instructions should be brought on record within three days and copies should be provided."All these submissions have been made by Sri Manish Goyal on the basis of the written instructions received by him from the office of the District Magistrate, Ghaziabad. A copy of the written instructions received by Sri Manish Goyal shall be brought on record of the present petition within three days and a copy thereof shall also be supplied to Sri S.F.A Naqvi learned Advocate appearing for the petitioner on his email address," the Court noted. .The matter will be heard next on June 7. .The petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Syed Farman Naqvi and Advocate Shashwat Anand. .[Read Order]