Pallahara: The Angul district administration has recently announced that medical oxygen cylinders will be available at petrol pumps for Covid-19 patients free of cost.
In this case, the Pallahara sub-division has deliberately been neglected, alleged some residents. “There are nine oxygen-filling centres but the facility is available only at one,” they informed.
During the second wave of the pandemic, the requirement of oxygen has increased manifold. Angul district is one of the worst affected due to the resurgence of Covid-19. In order to provide oxygen to Covid-19 patients easily, the administration and the Angul district Petrol Dealers’ Association have joined hands. The pumps are providing oxygen free of cost to Covid-19 patients.
The district administration had earlier announced that 50 oxygen cylinders and four concentrators have been kept at 40 petrol pumps.
However, in Pallahara sub-division, the facility is available only at ‘Soumya Prakash Petrol Pump’, located in Khamar area. There are total nine petrol pumps in the sub-division. The residents alleged that behaviour towards the sub-division has been ‘step-motherly’.
For the past few weeks, the Pallahara sub-division has been reporting double-digit cases on a daily basis. So the residents have urged the administration to facilitate supply of oxygen cylinders from other pumps also.
“It is a welcome move to provide oxygen cylinders at petrol pumps free of cost. But what saddens us is the fact that none of the four petrol pumps in Pallahara Sadar has this facility,” rued Dibya KIshore Gadnayak, president, Youth for Pallahara, a social organistaion.
In this regard, Ashok Mohanty, state executive member, BJP, said the district administration would be appraised of the facts soon.
When contacted, Biswajit Pattanayak, president, District Petrol Dealers’ Association, said the petrol pumps that have not been included will be done so shortly.
PNN