bengaluru at a time when the centre has asked states to ban production of oxygen for industrial use and enhance production of medical oxygen karnataka could face scarcity as oxygen produced in the state is being exported to other stateson monday the union government held a video conference with chief secretaries and heads of industries departments in all states to bring them up to date on the centres directives with regard to medical oxygenat the meeting karnataka was told it will be allocated 300 tonnes of oxygen from the national pool although seven companies in the state have the capacity to produce as much as 812 tonnes of oxygen the allocation sent the state government into a tizzy as daily consumption in the state has shot up to 305 tonnes as of mondayon sunday we used 280 tonnes and today it was 305 tonnes if we are allocated only 300 tonnes of oxygen and with cases surging we may face a serious crisis very soon if higher allocation is not made said a senior government official who attended the meeting with the cabinet secretarysources in the industries department said the state government has placed a request for 1000 tonnes and the centres allocation is way short as a result of this decision the karnataka government is planning to seek a ban on export of oxygen to other statesthe government will write to the cabinet secretary the union health ministry and the department for promotion of industries and trade dpit seeking a ban on export of oxygen to other states said another government officialdata accessed by toi shows karnatakas oxygen production for all purposes stands at around 598 tonnes per day from seven companies in four districts of this medical oxygen is 410 tonnes which is supplied to hospitals in karnataka but with the centre banning industrial use the state can produce 598 tonnes of medical oxygenjindal steel works jsw in ballari alone produces 440 tonnes incidentally oxygen is a byproduct of the steel manufacturing industry