Himachal Pradesh to supply oxygen to Delhi on Kejriwal's request

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has agreed to arrange emergency supplies of oxygen from Himachal Pradesh to New Delhi.

This was after a request of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to help the government in meeting shortage of the oxygen in Delhi and NCR hospital currently unable to manage the oxygen crisis due to massive spike and huge fatalities of Covid positive patients.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in a letter to Kejriwal said the State of Himachal Pradesh was highly concerned about the situation emerging in New Delhi and would be more than happy to extend all possible help to the Delhi Government. He said that the officers of New Delhi Government may contact Additional Director of Industries Tilak Raj for arranging the supplies of Oxygen from the State.

When contacted, Director (Industries) Hans Raj Sharma said the state government has already held a meeting with industrialists, who are already supplying oxygen to the hospitals in Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab, Haryana and UP.

"The state has not oxygen shortage and it has capacity to meet all emergency needs of Delhi, which is in grave crisis. Chief Minister has already passed the instructions to the department. We will facilitate the supply," he said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a tweet has conveyed gratitude towards Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister for their generosity.

Meanwhile, Covid situation in the state continues to be grim as 27 deaths were reported on Monday and 1692 fresh cases raised the tally of the active cases to alarmingly 14,326. Total deaths in the state have also risen to 1350.

Of the total 27 deaths, six persons lost their lives to Covid each in Shimla and Kangra districts while five in Mandi and three in Solan. Youngest

victim was a 35–year-old male in Sirmaur.

In order to meet shortage of the Covid beds in Kangra–the worst affected district, Chief Minister reached Dharamshala and reviewed the situation with high officials. He announced that efforts were on to acquire Radhaswami Complex, Parour to operationalize it upto 1000 bedded makeshift hospital.

He also visited Rajiv Gandhi government Post Graduate Ayurvedic College, Paprola in Baijnath where additional 50 bedded capacity for Covid-19 patients would be created in the newly constructed building of the Ayurvedic College.

He directed the authorities to increase the bed capacity upto 100 beds.