Punjabi NRIs rally behind country, vow to extend help

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 26

Punjabi NRI MPs and MLAs in the UK and Canada are concerned over situation in India and have promised to extend help in this moment of crisis.

UK MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi tweeted, “Situation in India is desperate, with thousands dying every day and more than 3,00,000 Covid cases detected daily. We in the UK must do everything possible to help India in this hour of need”.

UK MP Preet Kaur Gill tweeted, “We must support countries like India, which recorded the highest one-day tally of new Covid cases in the world. We can only do this by providing vaccines and sharing knowledge. Failing to bring the pandemic under control, poses risk of new forms of virus spreading.”

To send O2 equipment

• Members of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin raised more than $1,00,000 in one day to provide oxygen to hospitals in India
• The AAPI has coordinated with a non-profit organisation, SEWA International, to send the equipment to New Delhi and distribute it to hospitals that require it urgently

Rachna Singh, NDP MLA and parliament secretary of British Columbia, Canada, tweeted, “The news of Covid crisis in India is heartbreaking. My thoughts are with my family and friends, but especially with the marginalised who have been gravely impacted.”

Rallying behind India, even US lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to provide material and healthcare assistance and save lives from the deadly infection.

Senator Mark Warner (Democrat) and John Cornyn (Republican) jointly called on the White House to speed up its assistance to India.

US Congresswoman Sara Jacobs said providing support to India, including boosting the vaccine programme, was absolutely the right thing to do. “Moving forward, supporting vaccine programmes around the world will be essential. If the last year has shown us anything, it’s that global health impacts all of us.”

Even the global NGO, Khalsa Aid, has also announced that it will provide oxygen concentrators to patients in Delhi free of cost. “There is a huge gap between the demand and supply of oxygen, we want to play a miniscule part to bridge that gap. Though our effort is like a drop of water in an ocean, it is much needed. We were getting requests for oxygen so we managed to procure concentrators for the needy poor patients,” said Amarpreet Singh, director, Khalsa Aid Project (Asia Chapter).