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2. When the matter was listed before the Court on 10.12.2020, the State Government filed its response to I.A. No.6360/2020 thereby placing on record copy of the order dated 04.09.2020 issued by the Commissioner, Health Services, Department of Public Health and Family Welfare, Madhya Pradesh issued under the approval of the Additional Chief Secretary of the State Department, directing that under no circumstances the Private Hospitals/Nursing Homes/Clinical Establishments' charges shall exceed by 40% of the rates communicated on or before 29.02.2020 including all expenses such as PPE kits etc. The aforesaid order was addressed to all the Chief Medical & Health Officers of the State, President of the Indian Medical Association, President of the Nursing Home Association and the Additional Director, IDSP (MP). It was assured that the said order shall be prominently published in daily newspapers having wide circulation in the respective Districts of the State after interval of every 15 days. It was also informed on behalf of the State that approximately 1.5 Crore e-cards covering 56% of the beneficiaries families under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (which is hereinafter referred to as "Ayushman Bharat Yojana", as is commonly known) have been issued; total number of 652 health care providers have been empanelled in the State; the State Government is providing WP No.8914/2020 & Linked Matters free cashless health facility to all Covid-19 patients at dedicated Covid-19 hospitals and designated Government facilities.

21. The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Navtej Singh Johar and others Vs. Union of India (2018) 10 SCC 1, upon survey of previous case law held that right to health and health care is one of the facets of right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. It was held that "the right to life is meaningless unless accompanied by the guarantee of certain concomitant rights including, but not limited to, the right of health. The right of health is understood to be indispensable to a life of dignity and well-being, and includes, for instance, the right of emergency medical care and the right to the maintenance and improvement of public health". (See para 483 of the report).

23. The action plan produced by the State Government before this Court clearly indicates that apart from having an in-house production capacity of 66 Metric Ton by way of Air Separation Units, it has now swung into action to utilize all the resources at its command for arranging the Oxygen to procure 747 Metric Ton of Liquid Medical Oxygen from Steel Plants located in different parts of the country with the assistance from the Government of India to meet the expected demand of 651 Metric Ton by 30th April, 2021. It has installed 5 Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) Oxygen Generation Plants and is likely to install three more, thus catering to the need of eight different WP No.8914/2020 & Linked Matters districts to the extent of 5 Metric Ton. The State Government has also floated tenders for 13 more Pressure Swing Absorption Oxygen Plants of 600 LPM capacity for 13 districts and has decided to float another tender for 10 other districts shortly. According to the submission made on behalf of the State, 42,000 injections of Remdesivir have been supplied in government sector as on 14.04.2021 and that it is in negotiation with different manufacturers for supply of more than 39,000 Remdesivir injections to the private Health Care Institutions. Apart from this, the State Government has promised to ensure supply of Remdesivir injections to the private hospitals from the stores of the district Chief Medical & Health Officers. Of the total supply sourced by the State Government, approximately 50% is being made available to the Government Medical Colleges and remaining 50% is being given to the Chief Medical & Health Officer of every district out of which supply of Remdesivir is also made to the private hospitals under the supervision and control of the District Collector. According to the State, there is availability of 19,948 beds in the Government Hospitals (which includes 7880 Oxygen beds and 3258 ICU beds) and 16,756 beds in various private hospitals (which includes 8965 Oxygen beds and 3853 ICU beds), thus totaling to 36,704 beds whereas it is planning to increase 44,126 beds in Government Hospitals (which would include 14,770 Oxygen beds and 4356 ICU beds) and 18,293 beds in private hospitals (which would include 9767 Oxygen beds and 4091 ICU beds) by next 30-40 days. Apart from this, the State Government has set up Covid Command and Control Centres in each WP No.8914/2020 & Linked Matters of the 52 districts with 1075 as the toll free number and has submitted that it keeps updating bed occupancy and non-availability twice every day on the Sarthak portal. It has engaged 8843 additional human resource locally, which includes 472 MBBS doctors, who have completed their internships as on 31.03.2021, 93 PGMOs and 276 MOs. It is trying to increase the coverage of Ayushman Bharat Niramayam Yojana to bring many more private hospitals under its umbrella. It has so far administered first dose of Covid vaccine to 64,09,582 and second dose to 7,20,296 citizens. The work undertaken in the State Government within the past month or so is commendable and its preparation for the future is also quite impressive, however, efforts that it is making should also reflect on ground and benefit thereof should reach the common man. It therefore needs to work hard towards that aim and goal.

(xvii) in W.P. No.8753/2021 purportedly based on the Annual Report 2019-2020 it has been asserted that as against 3620 sanctioned posts of specialists, only 765 are presently working and nearly 2855 are vacant. Moreover, as against 5097 posts of Health Officers, only 3,589 are working and 1,508 posts are vacant. In this respect, the State Government should place on record correct data with regard to number of sanctioned posts and working strength of Senior specialists, Specialists, Medical Officers, Health Officers, PGMOs, Ayush Medical Officers, Staff Nurse, Support Staff/Ward Boy, Other Health Care Workers, Lab Technicians, ECG Technicians, X-ray Technicians, Scientists, OT Technicians, Radiographers, Lab Attendants, ICU/Ventilator Technicians, Pharmacists, and Oxygen WP No.8914/2020 & Linked Matters Technicians etc., within a period of 15 days. If the furnished data are correct, such huge vacancy position in the Government Hospitals, City Hospitals and District Hospitals poorly reflects on the health care system of the State. The State Government ought to therefore consider engaging the Medical Officers on emergent and short term basis on the basis of walk-in interviews by issuing advertisement for short duration so as to cater to the emergent requirements of Districts & City Hospitals and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs);