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Pune district may face oxygen crisis, FDA says demand up five times compared to January

The FDA said as per the state government's directives, oxygen supply to industries has been stopped fully.

MP man dies, MP hospital oxygen supply, Madhya Pradesh hospital, MP Government, man dies oxygen, India news, Indian expressAfter CCTV footage came to light, the district hospital has ordered an inquiry into the matter. (File)

With the number of Covid-19 patients requiring oxygen and ventilator beds on the rise, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) on Wednesday admitted that Pune district may face shortage of medical oxygen soon.

Pune Division requires 355 metric tonne of oxygen supply every day. As per Tuesday’s figure, 340 metric tonne oxygen was demanded by hospitals and that’s why, on Wednesday morning, we had only 15 metric tonne oxygen available…The situation as of now is tight…,” FDA Joint Commissioner S B Patil told The Indian Express.

Patil said compared to the situation in January, when only 75 metric tonne oxygen was required by hospitals, the demand has gone up five times. “In the coming days, we expect the demand to rise further and we might have a problem on hand,” he said, adding that the state government was trying to get additional oxygen from neighbouring states. “… However, given the restrictions announced by the state government, we expect that Covid-19 cases will come down and hospitals will need less oxygen,” he said.

– Stay updated with the latest Pune news. Follow Express Pune on Twitter here and on Facebook here. You can also join our Express Pune Telegram channel here.</strong

As of now, Patil said, “In Pune district, three plants in Chakan are taking care of the oxygen requirement of hospitals… In Kolhapur, one plant which is taking care of the districts of Kolhapur and Sangli. After taking care of the hospitals in Pune district, we are also sending oxygen to other districts like Satara, Ahmednagar, Solapur and Marathwada .”

The FDA said as per the state government’s directives, oxygen supply to industries has been stopped fully.

Sandee Belsare, president of Pimpri-Chinchwad Small Scale Industries Assocation, said, “The decision has affected 70 per cent of industries in the district. They rely heavily on oxygen supply for various processes carried out within their premises. If the situation prevails, the industries will have to shut shop, leading to job losses.”

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Abhay Bhor, president of the Forum for Small Industries Association, said, “In Pimpri-Chinchwad, engineering and fabrication industrial units are heavily dependent on oxygen supply. In all, we believe 10,000 small, medium and large industrial units in Pimpri-Chinchwad and neighbouring industrial estates will be hit.”

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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