Sir — It is heartening to read that a 12-member national task force has been set up by the Supreme Court to assess the availability and distribution of medical oxygen on scientific, rational and equitable basis across the country as the Central government has clearly failed to do it (“SC sets up oxygen task force”, May 9). The task force will also suggest measures to ensure the availability of medicines needed to treat Covid-19.

While the Centre agreed to this arrangement as well as to the idea of an audit, the Delhi government had opposed it. The rationale behind constituting a task force at the national level is to facilitate public health response to the pandemic based on scientific and specialized domain knowledge. The apex court expects that leading experts in the country will associate with the task force as members and resource persons. This would facilitate a meeting of minds and the formulation of scientific strategies to deal with this unprecedented human crisis.

In its hearings, the Supreme Court has exposed the Centre, which failed to consider factors like ambulances, lower-level Covid care facilities and patients in home quarantine. The apex court also asked if the Centre was preparing for a possible third Covid wave, which could further worsen the acute shortfall in oxygen, medicines and hospital beds.

India is battling a devastating wave of coronavirus cases with over four lakh new cases being reported in a day. The number of active cases in the country is now over 37 lakh — nearly four times the previous high from September last year. The Supreme Court has rightly pulled up the Centre for its inefficiency and incompetence.

Bhagwan Thadani,
Mumbai

Sir — That the Supreme Court had to establish a task force of doctors and bureaucrats to formulate a methodology for the scientific allocation of oxygen is shameful for the Centre. For the citizens of the country, however, this is a welcome step.

The plight of the common people of India has been insufferable. The inefficiency of the ruling dispensation at the Centre is only aggravating their woes. Patients are dying everyday gasping for oxygen, or on account of the lack of hospital beds. Only a rap on the knuckles from the apex court can make the Centre work.

Anjana De,
Howrah

Gone missing

Sir — It is shocking that the national library of Spain took four years to report the theft of Galileo Galilei’s Sidereus Nuncius, the first published systematic study of celestial bodies using a telescope. Several other works of his are also missing. The delay in reporting only makes it harder for the authorities to trace the documents. International help must be sought at once to retrieve these.

Ruchira Sharma,
Calcutta