A medicine shop owner has been accused of hoarding oxygen cylinders and renting them out at a premium.

A Behala resident whose two-month-old Saint Bernard died because he could not pay Rs 11,500 upfront for a cylinder blew the lid off such a practice.

Normally, an oxygen cylinder can be rented for Rs 500-700. There have been allegations that medicine shops are hoarding oxygen cylinders because of a surge in demand during the pandemic.

Santu Ganguly, who lost his pet Rocky on Monday, accused the medicine shop owner of demanding Rs 11,500 for an oxygen cylinder, which the dog needed urgently.

“One of my acquaintances had gone out looking for an oxygen cylinder. After searching the entire Behala area, he found an oxygen cylinder in a medicine shop at Sarsuna. The shop owner demanded Rs 11,500 for one cylinder. My acquaintance offered the owner Rs 2,900 he was carrying as an advance and promised to repay the rest… but the owner refused,” Ganguly told The Telegraph.

After Ganguly reported the matter to the city police’s enforcement branch, officers visited the shop, seized the money receipt book and prosecuted the owner.

The fear of Covid-19 infection, along with the apprehension of not getting a hospital accommodation, has prompted people to store oxygen cylinders at home even at a premium, many Calcuttans Metro spoke to said.

Subir Nath, a resident of Southern Avenue, has been renting oxygen cylinders for the past few years for his ailing mother. “I have been paying Rs 500 a month to the supplier whom I know for years. Another supplier recently asked for Rs 7,000 from one of my friends in north Calcutta. Then I got him connected to the person who supplies oxygen cylinders to me,” Nath said.

Metro spoke to several oxygen suppliers in the city who said some suppliers had been hoarding oxygen cylinders.

One of the oxygen cylinder suppliers in south Calcutta said the standard monthly rent for an oxygen cylinder is Rs 500. “If someone wants to buy a cylinder, the price can go up to Rs 10,700 in addition to the cost of accessories needed to set up the cylinder at home,” the supplier said.

“It is unfortunate that some of the suppliers are charging exorbitantly to give oxygen cylinders just because people are scared and ready to pay anything to get a cylinder,” he said.

Oxygen cylinders can be sold or rented out by organisations or individuals only if they possess a licence issued by the state drug controller.

In the season of Covid, such has been the worry regarding oxygen levels in the body that many families have got pulse oximeters at home to monitor the oxygen levels.