Responding to Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s plea for help amid the pandemic crisis, the Western Command of the Indian Army on Monday extended all possible help, including medical staff and medically trained combatants, to Punjab to meet the exigent shortage in hospital, along with support in reviving the state’s old oxygen plants that are currently lying defunct.
Lt Gen RP Singh, AVSM, VSM, GOC-in-C, Western Command, at a virtual meeting of the Chief Minister with senior Command officials, also offered to provide staff to run the 100-bed Covid facility proposed to be set up in the building loaned to the state government by CSIR for the purpose.
At another review meeting with top officials of the state government and medical experts, the Chief Minister said that the government was also approaching the Union Home Ministry to provide manpower and ICU beds through the Border Security Force (BSF).
Technical and specialist cover will be provided by the Command Centre, Lt Gen Singh told the Chief Minister during their VC, adding that 15 trained nurses had already been sent to Patiala to support the civic staff. Further, experts will be sent to visit the defunct oxygen plants at existing industrial units to assess their status and extend whatever support is needed for their restoration.
Though their resources were stressed on account of requirements also from other states, including Delhi, Haryana, and Jammu & Kashmir, the army officials said they will extend all possible help to Punjab to tackle the situation.
As Punjab continues to gasp for breath, the Chief Minister, at the internal review meeting said that the state government was making all the efforts to secure medical oxygen to supplement its depleting stocks.
The oxygen allocation from the Centre is currently at 105 tonnes, while the daily requirement of the medical oxygen is not less than 300 tonnes.
The meeting was informed by Secretary Industries, Alok Shekhar, that Jalandhar and Amritsar had been facing a crisis on the oxygen front for the past few days, which the state had somehow handled through judicious management.
Battling with the pandemic, Punjab is witnessing a sharp rise in fresh Covid-19 cases. Ludhiana alone reported nearly 1300 cases on Monday.