Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, May 3 : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that Ministry of DoNER is taking proactive steps in augmenting and supplementing Oxygen Plants and other COVID related infrastructure in all the North-Eastern States.
In a high level on-line review meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of North East (DoNER) and North Eastern Council (NEC) held today, the Minister was informed that an oxygen plant was set up in Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh with financial support provided by the Ministry and efforts are on to set up many more plants in remote and far-flung areas of other States. The Ministry is also actively considering the proposal of Arunachal Government for five mobile oxygen vans at a cost of 5 crore rupees.
Dr Jitendra Singh expressed satisfaction that the united fund of Rs.25 crores given to North Eastern States last March for gap funding to fight the COVID-19 outbreak effectively has proved a boon for many states for purchase of vital health equipment in many hospitals. He however added that there is no shortage of oxygen in any of the North Eastern States and some of them are having surplus stock due to timely supply last year.
In addition, the DoNER Minister also recalled that last year in the early days of lockdown-1, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DonER) has stepped in preemptively and placed an amount of Rs.25 Cr at the disposal of North Eastern States for preparatory steps to tackle the pandemic, even though at that time the North Eastern States had not been that much affected so far and many of the States like Sikkim and Manipur were absolutely Corona-free at that time.
The Minister also expressed happiness on being informed that for the second consecutive year, 100 percent budget of the Ministry of DoNER has been spent for the current financial year well in advance before the end of the fiscal.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that he is in regular touch with all the North Eastern States for any exigency and informed that the Ministry undertook coordination activities on a large scale during the recent earthquake in Assam.
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