Civil society members have come forward in Jharkhand to solve the crises of oxygen and equipment amid the continuous surge in Covid-19 cases.

Members of Bokaro Old Xaverians’ Associations (Boxa), an alumni association of St Xavier’s School, Bokaro, which started distributing oxygen and equipment to needy staff of their alma mater and to ailing parents of alumni members at a nominal cost on May 1, have decided to widen their ambit and provide oxygen cylinders to all members of the society.

“We started an oxygen bank on our school campus wherein we provided oxygen cylinders and regulators to parents of our alumni members and staff and their family members of St Xavier’s School. However, we are going to widen its ambit and cater to all people depending on the availability of oxygen cylinders. We do not charge a single penny to those who are financially poor but only charge Rs 500 for oxygen cylinders and a daily rental of Rs 50 to those who can afford.

“We were facing a shortage of regulators and oxygen masks and have held talks with a firm in Calcutta and hope to get them in a day or two,” said Sajan Kapoor, secretary of the alumni association and a student of the 1986 batch of the school.

So far they have helped seven families.

“We have provided oxygen cylinders to seven families and seeing our efforts other members of Boxa have contributed voluntarily to our effort. We have pooled in Rs 250,000 so far,” added Kapoor, who is a contractor based in Bokaro.

Additional director-general of police Anil Palta, who is a student of the 1984 batch, is the mentor to the alumni association.“He is our mentor and it is on his advice that we have started this initiative,” said Kapoor. The alumni association members are also planning to start a free vaccination camp on the school campus on Sunday.

In a related development, Jatin Kumar, a post-graduate student of Sidhu Kanhu Murmu University, Dumka, and a recipient of the National NSS Award 2018-19 from the President last year, has donated pulse oximeters, vaporisers, sanitiser and masks to RJG Gurukulam (an orphanage) for the children.

Oxygen beds

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Thursday virtually inaugurated 327 oxygen-supported beds in a Covid facility at a multi-storeyed parking lot and another 128 oxygen-supported beds at an old building in Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, one of the biggest state-owned hospitals in the state. He also inaugurated 73 ICU beds in the oncology department of the RIMS.

The Jharkhand Viklang Manch (an outfit for the physically challenged) on Thursday wrote to Soren to restart the pension scheme for the disabled.

“The monthly pension of Rs 1,000 was being given to nearly 2 lakh disabled people in the state. But this has

been stopped since November 2020. We have written to the secretary of the social welfare department earlier too but got no response.

“So we have written to the chief minister to help us get the amount in order to tide over the economic crisis during the lockdown period,” said Manch president Arun Kumar Singh, who is orthopedically challenged.