new delhi communist party of india cpi mp binoy viswam on thursday has moved privilege motion notice against an answer in the rajya sabha by minister of state bharati pravin pawar that no one has died because of the nonavailability of oxygenthe minister of state in the ministry of health and family welfare dr bharati pravin pawar in reply to unstarred question 243 on july 20 2021 has stated that there were no deaths due to oxygen shortage reported by states during the second wave of covid19 beyond being absolutely disrespectful to the hundreds who suffered this avoidable demise the government has tried to mislead the parliament with its response and thereby broken parliamentary privilege wrote viswam to rajya sabha secretary generalthe cpi leader said that thousands of people died due to the lack of oxygen during the months of april and may 2021 across the country the innumerable reports in the media and numerous citizens personal experience during those fateful months are testament to this factvirtually every high court and even the supreme court was inundated with desperate pleas from hospitals and citizens requesting oxygen the lack of which was the failure of the government to adequately prepare for this crisisthe rajya sabha mp emphasised that is no official data on the number of persons who died due to the shortage of oxygenthe complete lack of accountability and attempts to mislead this house as well as the people of this country require the most serious of action in light of this i urge you to take notice of this breach of privilege and ensue proceedings in that regard stated viswamthe central government on tuesday informed the rajya sabha that no deaths due to lack of oxygen has been specifically reported by statesunion territories during the second wave of covid19responding to a question by congress mp kc venugopal on whether a large number of covid19 patients died on roads and hospitals due to acute shortage of oxygen in the second wave minister of state for health dr bharati pravin pawar pointed out that health is a state subject and accordingly all statesuts report cases and deaths to the union health ministry on a regular basisin a written reply she stated that the government of india has supported the states and undertook a series of actions including provisioning medical oxygenhealth is a state subject detailed guidelines for reporting of deaths have been issued by union health ministry to all states or uts accordingly all states or uts report cases and deaths to union health ministry on a regular basis however no deaths due to lack of oxygen has been specifically reported by states or uts however government of india has supported the states and undertook a series of actions including provisioning medical oxygen and other consumables to ensure clinical care of covid19 patients in view of steep rise of covid19 trajectory in the country during april may 2021 reads the reply