Fatehgarh Sahib sending 2,500 oxygen cylinders to all districts daily

Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, April 30

Amid oxygen crisis in the state, Fatehgarh Sahib is supplying 2,500 cylinders of oxygen to all other districts, particularly worst-affected Patiala, Mohali and Amritsar, on a daily basis. There is no shortage of oxygen, but of medical cylinders.

“All six oxygen-producing units in the district are running round the clock and the district administration has formed an oxygen audit committee and deployed police and civil officials for 24 hours in these units. We have taken control of distribution to curb black marketing in this hour of crisis,” said Amrit Kaur Gill, Deputy Commissioner.

Gill said a committee was monitoring the production and distribution of the cylinders as per the requisition of the districts. Oxygen audit committee chairman Ravinder Singh said they were getting requests from almost all districts except Gurdaspur and Jalandhar. After every four hours they prepare a chart of the availability of the gas with the units and inform the nodal officer of the district concerned to send cylinders to the allotted unit. He said there was no shortage of gas but of medical cylinders. He said that to cope with the rising demand and supply of the oxygen had been completely banned for the industrial use as per the Centre’s instructions. He said if liquid gas was made available, the production could be doubled. He said, moreover, an industrial unit was lying defunct and the administration was making efforts to make it operational and it will be able to produce gas for 1,400 more cylinders.

Meanwhile, Mohinder Gupta, president, Furnace Association, Mandi Gobindgarh, said if the government couldn’t supply gas, it should impose lockdown.