The Jharkhand government inaugurated a slew of health infrastructure projects across the state, including 27 pressure swing adsorption oxygen plants established under the PM Cares Fund, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the plants across the country at a virtual programme in AIIMS Rishikesh.

The inauguration drew sharp criticism from Ranchi BJP MP Sanjay Seth who termed it as an insult to the Prime Minister.

“The PSA plants were constructed under the PM Cares Fund as part of the Central government efforts to battle Covid pandemic. The inauguration of the PSA plants in Jharkhand by the state government a day before the PM inauguration schedule defies logic. It is an insult to the Prime Minister,” said Seth.

Kanke’s BJP MP Samri Lal boycotted the inauguration programme held at RIMS Trauma Centre Auditorium in Ranchi on Wednesday afternoon, in protest against the state government’s decision.

Chief minister Hemant Soren undeterred by the controversy went ahead with the inauguration of PSA oxygen plant at Sadar Hospital in Ranchi and also inaugurated central pathology lab, 256 slice CT-Scan, Cobas 6800 machines at the RIMS Ranchi which were built with state government funding.

“It is part of the state government’s effort to upgrade health infrastructure in the state and be prepared for Covid pandemic in future. The pathology lab would remain functional round the clock and provide free of cost testing at par with international standards,” said Hemant Soren.

Incidentally, the Cobas 6800 testing machine is the first such machine to be installed anywhere in Jharkhand.

“Cobas 6800, a fully automated, high end machine for performing real time PCR testing Covid-19 in the service of the nation. COBAS 6800 will provide quality, high-volume testing with a high throughput of around 1200 samples in 24 hours. It will largely increase the testing capacity with reduction in pendency,” said health minister Banna Gupta.

Significantly, Cobas 6800 is a sophisticated machine enabled with robotics that minimises the chance of contamination as well as the risk of infection to the health care workers since it can be operated remotely with limited human intervention

The chief minister, however, left the inauguration of the PSA plants in 19 districts to state health minister Banna Gupta. The health minister also flagged off 10 ambulances for community health centres at Tamar and Lapung in the outskirts of Ranchi.

The newly inaugurated PSA oxygen plants are at RIMS Ranchi, SNMMCH Dhanbad, MGM Jamshedpur and Sadar Hospitals at Garhwa, Giridih, Godda, Gumla, Hazaribagh, Khunti, Latehar, Lohardaga, Pakur, Ramgarh, Sahebganj, Seraikela and Chaibasa and medical college in Palamau.

Though the chief minister’s office refused to give any comment on the controversy over inauguration of the PSA plants.

But JMM central general secretary and spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said: “Oxygen plants come under essential commodities and the government need not wait for a suitable time to inaugurate it.”