Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh in touch with distt administration
Kathua: The only oxygen plant in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district which had been supplying oxygen to hospitals there broke down on Sunday afternoon causing panic among people.
Confirming this, a tweet from Union Minister of State in the PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh, read: “From #Kathua, I received information this evening that the solitary Oxygen plant has suddenly broken down and caused panic in public about the potential shortage of Oxygen in the days to come. I am in touch with the local administration and my office is continuously following it up with DC Rahul Yadav and his team’’. “They have been urged to find an alternative source of Oxygen without losing time and reach out to us immediately wherever and whatever level our intervention is required,’’ it added.
In view of the spike in Covid-19 cases, the lone Oxygen plant in Kathua district by a private individual had been daily supplying nearly 200 Oxygen cylinders to Government Medical College Hospital and another 150 cylinders to a private hospital there.
To meet this demand, the plant had been running 24×7 since April 18 without any rest, the plant owner Charanjit Singh told media persons. As a result, it developed some technical snag on Sunday afternoon, he said, adding that they have called the technician from Ludhiana to rectify it.
Kathua Deputy Commissioner Rahul Yadav when contacted said that they have made arrangemens for supply of Oxygen cylinders from adjoining Samba district where three Oxygen plants are in operation.
Meanwhile, working is in progress for the installation of an Oxygen plant in Kathua GMC. R R Bhatnagar, Advisor to UT’s Lt Governor, earlier during the day visited Kathua GMC to review COVID-19 measures. He also inspected the progress of work on Oxygen generation plan and directed the authorities to expedite work and ensure its commissioning within the shortest possible time.