Dr Jitendra in touch with authorities
Avtar Bhat
KATHUA, May 9: The oxygen supply to Government Medical College Kathua, a private hospital in the town and other Sub Sistrict Hospitals in the district has been affected since this afternoon after the private gas plant developed a snag and stopped supply suddenly.
Soon after the breakdown of the Oxygen Gas Plant in the town, the management of the plant and the district administration put its men and machinery on the job to restore the plant to normal functioning as early as possible.
For speedy restoration of the plant, the authorities also deputed a senior officer on the job as the plant which has been working round the clock without any break was supplying oxygen gas to GMC Kathua, A K Gupta Hospital, Kathua which is a private hospital treating the COVID patients, sub district hospitals Billawar and Basohli besides augmenting the supply to GMC Jammu also.
The sudden breakdown of the Oxygen Gas Plant has generated a lot of panic among the people in view of the rising cases of COVID patients needing the oxygen supply for their survival which will lead to crisis in the prevailing situation. However, the district administration without wasting any time put the plant management on the job and they summoned the technical team from Ludhiana to restore the Gas Plant as early as possible.
Soon after getting the news about the breakdown of Oxygen Plant, Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh who is also the MP from Kathua, Udhampur and Doda Lok Sabha constituency took up the issue with district administration Kathua urging it to take immediate steps for the restoration of the plant so that the people are not put to problems which will lead to public outcry in the area.
Dr Singh in a tweet said “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 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 at whatever level our intervention is required”.
Sources said after the breakdown of the plant there were only 80 cylinders of the Oxygen left with it and they were distributed within hours. Later to meet out the supply in the GMC Kathua and other hospitals of the district the Oxygen cylinders were brought from Jammu, sources added.
Sandeep Dubey, Functional Manager, DIC Kathua who was supervising the restoration work of the Oxygen Plant told Excelsior that the technical team has been summoned from Ludhiana Punjab by this evening and they are on the job.
He said they have started the restoration work and parts have been opened and after proper checking they will be reassembled and the work is in progress. He expressed the hope that the plant will be made fully functional during the night to restore the supply.
The gas plant is working round the clock and producing 3000 cubic meters of oxygen gas daily. It fills 300 cylinders of seven cubic meters each daily to cope up with the supply in the district as well as other areas of Jammu region.
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