Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha and National BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur today virtually laid foundation stones of 140 LPM PSA oxygen plant at Dr. Radhakrishanan Government Medical College, Hamirpur and another 140 LPM PSA Oxygen Plant at CHC Ghumarwin in Bilaspur district today. The each LPM PSA Plant would provide uninterrupted oxygen supply to 30 beds each.
While addressing the event from New Delhi, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha and National BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda said that when most of the National Political Parties has gone under virtual quarantine, the BJP, through its “Sewa Hi Sangathan” has come forward to help the people of the State in fighting the pandemic and mitigating the sufferings of the common man. He said that the Corona pandemic was one of the biggest tragedies of the century thus the efforts required were to be big. He said that the Union Government under the leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, free ration was provided to about 80 crore people of the country both during the first wave last year and also during the second wave this year.
Jagat Prakash Nadda said that the Union Government has provided subsidy on fertilizers to facilitate the farmers of the country during this pandemic. He said that this has benefitted crores of farmers of the country. He said that similarly, crores of farmers of the country have been benefitted under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. He said that as many as 9,26,963 eligible farmers of the State have been provided assistance of Rs. 1355.80 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna till now.
National BJP President said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has effectively guided the nation during the pandemic. He said that there was only one virology lab to test Corona virus in the country last year, but the country today has over 2500 labs providing immediate testing facilities to the corona patients. He also appreciated the Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur for generously helping the State fighting this pandemic.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that the State had only around 200 active cases of Covid as on 23rd February 2021 and thereafter 2nd wave struck the State. He said that fortunately now the recovery rate in the State was 89.3 percent, which has seen an improvement in last few days. He said that the State Government was leaving no stone unturned to ramp up the testing. He said that last year when the pandemic struck, there was not even one lab in the State which could do Covid testing, but the State Government undertook urgent steps and in no time established a network of 8 RT-PCR, 25 TrueNat and 2 CBNAAT Labs. To increase testing in the far-flung and rural areas, as many as 70 ambulances have been deployed by the Government in various districts, he added.
Jai Ram Thakur said that on 1st March 2021, the State had only 11 Dedicated Covid Hospitals/Dedicated Covid Health Centres in the State with a bed capacity of 440 beds with 32 ICU/Ventilator Beds, but the State added 46 more facilities with a bed strength of around 3500 beds and more than 250 ICU/ventilator beds. Now there were 57 Dedicated Covid Hospitals/Dedicated Covid Health Centres in the State with a bed capacity of around 4000 beds with 290 ICU/Ventilator Beds. He said that with the three Makeshift Hospitals at Khaliyar in Mandi district, Paraur in Kangra district and Rabon in Solan district has increased the bed capacity to about 5000 beds.
Chief Minister said that the current inventory of D-Type cylinders was around 7755 and the State also has 2328 B-Type cylinders. He said that a Liquid oxygen cryo facility of 15KL is functional at Tanda Medical College and an ASU (Air Separation Unit) facility had been made functional at IGMC Shimla of around 350 D-Type capacity. He said that yesterday he had inaugurated a LMO facility of 20 kilolitre cryogenic tank at IGMC Shimla. He said that PSA plants have been added to the State’s resources in the last few months and were now functional at Dr. YSPGMC Nahan, Pt. JLNGMC Chamba, Dr. RKGMC Hamirpur, ZH Dharamshala, DDU Shimla and SLBSGMC Ner Chowk. Two PSA plants of 1000 LPM were being constructed at MCH ZH Mandi and CH Palampur, he added.
Jai Ram Thakur said that the State Government has provided about 23.59 lakh doses of vaccination to the people in the State. He said that the State was one of the few states of the country to achieve zero percent wastage of vaccination. He thanked the Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs for his generous contribution to the State in fighting this pandemic.
Chief Minister said that the present Centre Government has successfully completed two year of its present tenure and a total seven years in office and this tenure has proved a boon to the people of the country. He said that India has today emerged as World Power and Vishwa Guru.
Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur while welcoming the National BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that it was due to initiative of the National BJP President that each and every party functionary contributed generously towards helping the Covid-19 patients and their families. He said that not even a single PPE kit was produced in country when Corona pandemic started, today the Nation was producing about 20 lakh PPE kits per day. He said that as many as 23 crore doses of vaccine had been administered to the people in the country.
Anurag Singh Thakur said that oxygen bank would be set up in Himachal Pradesh which would provide uninterrupted oxygen supply to 700 beds. He said that National BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda would flag off first consignment of 108 oxygen concentrators and 160 oxygen cylinders for this Oxygen Bank.
Health Minister Dr. Rajiv Saizal presented vote of thanks.
State BJP President Suresh Kashyap, State BJP In-charge Avinash Rai Khanna, Co-Incharge Sanjay Tandon, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Rajinder Garg joined the event virtually whereas MLA Jhandutta J.R. Katwal, Political Advisor to the Chief Minister Trilok Jamwal and Secretary Health Amitabh Awasthi were present at Shimla with the Chief Minister.
