Two years later, the Rs 1.5 cr oxygen plant at the Kangra district’s Jawali Civil Hospital is gathering dust due to a lack of electricity

Due to the Health Department’s indifference, a Rs 1.5 crore Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen producing unit that was constructed in 2022 at the Jawali Civil Hospital in the Kangra district has been collecting dust for the last two years.

In order to keep the plant running, the Health Department has been neglecting to construct a generator and an energy transformer for the last two years.

Patients from Jawali Nagar Panchayat and the adjacent gram panchayats cannot benefit from the plant because of the authorities’ inability to commission it.

The 900 liter per minute PSA oxygen plant for the Jawali hospital was approved by the Central Government under the PM Care Fund. The generator and transformer for the power were intended to be provided by the state health department.

Information indicates that in order for the transformer to be installed, the Department was required to pay Rs 35 lakh with the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd (HPSEB).

The former Jai Ram Thakur administration informed us that the hospital had 50 beds, however as of right present, it only has an indoor 22-bed unit.

The HPSEBL had sent out a demand notice for the deposit of Rs 35 lakh in order to establish an energy transformer at the hospital in July 2022, according to Dr. Aman Dua, the in-charge of Jawali’s Civil Hospital. He claimed to have presented the same to the Health Department’s upper management, but the money had not yet been approved. Dr. Dua acknowledged that the digital X-ray equipment and oxygen plant installed at the Civil Hospital required the transformer.

Ravi Kumar, the former Jawali Nagar Panchayat councillor, and the local populace have petitioned the state government to grant funding after the conclusion of the model code of conduct so that the plant may be operational in the greater good of the community.

Chander Kumar, the minister of agriculture and animal husbandry, represents the Jawali Assembly seat. Local BJP politician Sanjay Guleria, who ran in the last Assembly election, said that the state government was discriminating against Jawali and that the Minister was neglecting his people’ needs.

Five such oxygen plants were approved by the Central Government in 2021 for the following locations: Rajiv Gandhi government Postgraduate Ayurvedic College, Paprola; Civil Hospital, Palampur; Zonal Hospital Dharamsala; Tanda Medical College, Kangra; and Civil Hospital, Nurpur. These approvals were granted under the PM Care Fund. All of the plants have been running for more than two years, meeting the patients’ constant need for oxygen.