NCP blames Centre for oxygen shortage in India, claims CBI being used to cover up failures

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) hit out at the Centre over its alleged failure to provide oxygen to patients and claimed that the CBI was used as an eyewash to distract the public from its failures. NCP's dig at the central government comes after former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh was named in an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in relation to the extortion charges levelled against the former by ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh. Following reports of searches being conducted at Anil Deshmukh's residence, NCP claimed that it was an age-old tactic of the Centre to cover up its failure by using the CBI and claimed that oxygen-deficient patients were on the verge of death across the country while there was no availability of oxygen or vaccine. 

NCP claims Centre is using CBI as eyewash

CBI names Anil Deshmukh in FIR

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in relation to the 'extortion' charges levelled against him by ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, sources informed on Saturday. As per sources, Anil Deshmukh has been named in the CBI's FIR along with unknown persons while searches were being carried out at the NCP leader's residence on Saturday morning. Anil Deshmukh was earlier summoned by the CBI on April 14 and was grilled by two SP-rank officers prior to which two of his aides were questioned by the central agency in relation to the corruption allegations levelled on him by Param Bir Singh in his 8-page letter.  

India records over 3 lakh COVID cases in 24 hours

A record single-day rise of 3,46,786 coronavirus cases pushed India's tally of infection to 1,66,10,481, while active cases crossed the 25-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday. The death toll rose to 1,89,544 with a record 2,624 more fatalities in a day, the data updated at 8 am showed. With a steady increase, active cases in the country reached 25,52,940 and comprise 15.37 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further dropped to 83.49 per cent.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease rose to 1,38,67,997, while the case fatality rate has dropped to 1.14 per cent, the data stated. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 last year, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of a total of 1.50 crore COVID-19 on April 19 this year.