Manish Sisodia writes to Nirmala Sitharaman to waive GST on oxygen concentrators for six months
The Hindu
Oxygen concentrators emerged as “essential life support machines”, says Manish Sisodia.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio, on Monday wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman requesting that GST be waived on oxygen concentrators for a period of six months. These, Mr. Sisodia wrote, had emerged as “essential life support machines” given the surging COVID cases in the Capital and citizens would benefit if the GST complement of the price could be waived off. At the moment, Mr. Sisodia wrote, Delhi has 16,272 non-ICU oxygen beds and 4,866 oxygen beds and the Delhi government was working on a “war footing” at creating 15,000 oxygenated non-ICU beds, 1,200 ICU beds over next 10 days even as more than 50,000 COVID patients were in home isolation.The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.