2 years on, Rs 1.5 cr oxygen plant gathers dust at Jawali Civil Hospital in Kangra district for want of power

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, May 1

A Rs 1.5 crore Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen generating plant, installed in 2022 at the Jawali Civil Hospital in Kangra district, is gathering dust for two years, thanks to the apathy of the Health Department.

For two years, the Health Department has failed to install an electricity transformer and a generator to make the plant operational.

Owing to the failure on the part of the authorities concerned in commissioning the plant, patients from Jawali Nagar Panchayat and surrounding gram panchayats are unable to benefit from it.

The Central Government had sanctioned the PSA oxygen plant with 900 litre per minute capacity under the PM Care Fund for the Jawali hospital. The state Health Department was supposed to provide the electricity transformer and generator.

As per information, the Department was supposed to deposit Rs 35 lakh with the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd (HPSEB) for the installation of the transformer.

The hospital was notified as a 50-bed facility by the previous Jai Ram Thakur government, but it has only an indoor 22-bed ward as of now.

Dr Aman Dua, in-charge, Civil Hospital, Jawali, said the HPSEBL had issued a demand notice for depositing Rs 35 lakh for installing an electricity transformer at the hospital in July 2022. He said he had submitted the same to the high-ups of the Health Department, but the funds had not been sanctioned so far. Dr Dua admitted that the transformer was absolutely necessary for the oxygen plant and a digital X-Ray machine installed in the Civil Hospital.

Former councillor of Jawali Nagar Panchayat, Ravi Kumar and local residents have appealed to the state government to release funds after the model code of conduct ends and make the plant functional in larger interest of the people.

Jawali Assembly constituency is being represented by Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Chander Kumar. Sanjay Guleria, a local BJP leader who had contested the last Assembly election, alleged that Jawali was being discriminated against by the state government and the Minister had failed to watch the interests of his constituents.

The Central Government, through the PM Care Fund, had sanctioned five such oxygen plants for Rajiv Gandhi government Postgraduate Ayurvedic College, Paprola; Civil Hospital, Palampur; Zonal Hospital Dharamsala; Tanda Medical College, Kangra; and Civil Hospital, Nurpur, in 2021. All the plants are operational for over two years and fulfilling the oxygen demand of the patients round the clock.

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