First charitable oxygen bank started in Dehradun to cope with Covid third wave
Dehradun, Jan 10
The first charitable private oxygen bank started by ‘Devbhoomi Manav Sansadhan Vikas Trust started functioning from Dehradun. The formal inauguration of the oxygen bank which was the brain child of senior Congress leader and vice-president of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) was done by a group of eminent personalities at a function held in Dehradun, the capital city of Uttarakhand on Friday.
Dr Anil Parkash Joshi, an eminent environmentalist and PadmaBhushan awardee, Kalyan Singh Rawat, a padam Shri awardee and proponent of ‘Maiti Andolan’ of tree plantation, Dr. R.P. Bhatt, Former Uttarakhand Director General of Health, Dr. Vipul Kandwal, MD of “Arogyadham’ Hospital, former registrar of HNB Garhwal University Hira lal Upadhaya, Anil Jaggi, secretary of the trust lighted the tradtioanl lamp to mark the formal inauguration of the oxygen bank.
Dr. Parkash Joshi, the Chief guest in his address lauded the effort of the trust and Suryakant Dhasmana in particular in setting up the oxygen bank to deal with the third wave of Covid-19 and Omnicron. He along with Kalyan Singh Rawat, appealed to the people to appreciate the importance of natural oxygen also which humans are getting free of cost but doing little to preserve trees and environment which produce oxygen.
Kalyan Singh Rawat appreciating the initiative taken by Suryakant Dhasmana said that even during the second Covid 19 wave when the government infrastructure and machinery struggled, it was Suryakant Dhasmana who despite the dangers of infections worked overtime to provide succour to the victims by providing oxygen cylinders, rations for poor and arranging hospital beds. He said that setting up of charitable oxygen bank which would provide free oxygen cylinders to the needy would be a great effort in the coming days.
Dr. R.P. Bhatt, former DG, Health, Uttarakhand said that Suryakant dhasmana despite being a politician rose to the occasion during the last Covid wave to provide help to the needy without bothering about his own safety. DR. Vipul Kandwal of ‘Arogyadham’ hospital recalled the time of second wave of Covid and appreciated the efforts of Suryakant Dhasmana to provide help to the victims and other needy people.
Recalling his experiences Dhasmana said that despite being a politician his first love is social service and could any day sacrifice his politics for the welfare of the masses. He said that he was perhaps only politician who was forcibly quarantined twice for questioning the state government for its preparedness to deal with Covid-19 second wave. “ When all the politicians, including Chief Minister and ministers preferred to stay indoors, we despite the risk decided to organise oxygen cylinders, rations and other help to the needy”, he said.
He said that out of 140 people, he helped with oxygen cylinders during that crisis, all but one were saved which gave him immense satisfaction and encouragement to work further. “ We have now 250 cylinders at our disposal and could provide free service to any needy person in Dehradun through our oxygen bank. We propose to take the initiative to the entire state and to other parts of the country also in near future,” he announced.
A two minute silence was observed for all the victims of Covid -19 throughout the world. Supriya Dhasmana, conducted the function and elaborated on the initiative which has been named “Saanse” (breath).
