Delhi government wants army deployed in city, HC seeks Centre's response
The Arvind Kejriwal government informed Delhi High Court that a request had been communicated to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on May 2 for the Indian Army to be deployed in the city so that help can be provided to people and additional facilities can be set up.
FollowThe Delhi government has requested the defence ministry to deploy the Indian Army in the national capital for rapid assistance, additional Covid facilities and resource capacity.
The Arvind Kejriwal government informed Delhi High Court that a request had been communicated to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on May 2 for the Indian Army to be deployed in the city so that help can be provided to people and additional facilities can be set up.
Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, the Amicus Curiae in the case, suggested that the Army's help may be taken to take care of filling stations, where diversion seems to be happening on the ground.
Following this, the High Court bench asked the Centre to submit its reply to the Delhi government's request for assistance of the Army.
In his letter to Rajnath on May 2, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that since the entire health infrastructure machinery of the city is overwhelmed with the management of the existing hospitals and the upcoming Covid hospitals, it will be a timely help to the people of Delhi if the ministry of defence, with the considerable resources at its command, is tasked with the responsibility to provide and man the additional Covid health facilities as per the current projections.
He sought the Army's help in setting up, operationalising and running some Covid-19 health facilities with about 10,000 oxygenated non-ICU beds and 1,000 ICU beds.
The letter came on the day Delhi reported over 400 Covid-related deaths and 20,394 fresh cases. Even though the rate at which people were testing Covid positive dropped below 30 per cent, the city's health infrastructure continues to reel under immense strain.
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