Chandigarh: With Oxygen supplies in the state depleting fast, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh Sunday sent another SOS letter to Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, for the second time in two days, for an urgent increase in allocation of quota.
He also directed Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan to pursue with the Government of India for urgent supplies, given the serious situation, with the patient load increasing due to influx from Delhi and other states, and pushing up demand for medical Oxygen. He further asked the Chief Secretary to rush urgent supplies to Amritsar, where precious lives were lost yesterday due to a shortage of Oxygen in a private hospital.
Given the criticality of the situation, the Chief Minister has sought four-hourly reports from Principal Secretary Industries on the state’s hospital-wise demand-supply situation of Oxygen.
Today’s letter to the Union Health Minister followed the Centre’s failure to increase the allocation to Punjab as per the new allocation of LMO issued on Saturday, despite his plea for enhancement to at least 250 MT of LMO per day.
The Chief Minister had on Saturday written to the Union Health Minister requesting for an increase in Punjab’s Liquid Oxygen quota to 250 MT daily due to the continuous surge of Covid cases, seeking his urgent personal intervention in this regard.
Writing in continuation of his earlier letter, the Chief Minister, on Sunday, said “the situation has become very grim over last few days as our supply of LMO has not been able to meet the increased demand.”
