Electrifying Kashmir
Power Development Corporation Limited (KPDCL) has said that 21 out of 70 receiving stations (RS) were completed to date while 10 more are likely to be completed by July 2021. The issues regarding hampering of work at new 10MVA RS at Ranger, Chadoora and augmentation of Safa Kadal RS from 6.3MVA to 10MVA under PMDP-Urban were also discussed in the meeting.
The MD KPDCL asked for the completion of work of Hachaipora 6.3MVA R/Stn under DDUGJY on priority. Also, the issue of additional funds for 33KV Bandipora-Gurez line was decided to be put forth before the next Board of Directors meeting. In the meeting, the sluggish performance of M/S Shalaka Infra was noted seriously and it was decided that a meeting with the TKC be called soon to fixing responsibility for the delay in execution. The meeting was also informed that more than 90 per cent of street lighting work pertaining to KPDCL stands completed.
Relief In Covid19
The Administrative Council (AC), which met here under the chairmanship of Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha, approved the grant of financial relief through the Special Assistance Scheme for Covid19 moralities (SASCM/Saksham) to the families of Covid19 victims. The scheme aims to ensure the sustenance of families who have lost their sole breadwinner. Under the Saksham, the surviving spouse, and one eldest surviving member of affected families will receive a special monthly pension of Rs 1000 through direct bank transfer (DBT), provided that they are not otherwise receiving any pension under other schemes. Additionally, the scheme will also provide special scholarships to children who lost their earning parent(s)/ sibling(s)/ guardian(s) to Covid19. The special scholarship will be paid annually at the rate of Rs 20,000 and Rs 40,000 through DBT to children studying up to 12th standard, and higher education, respectively. The AC also approved the creation of a special cell in the Social Welfare Department for handholding the families of Covid19 victims and facilitating the extension of benefits under different Government schemes including financial assistance for self-employment. The said cell will consist of Director General, Women and Child Development, Director, Social Welfare Kashmir/ Jammu, Mission Director, ICPS, and representative of Finance Department.
Public Outreach
The Jammu and Kashmir government last week directed all administrative secretaries to fix time slots for hearing of public grievances. A circular issued by the General Administration Department said that the government’s public interaction has got affected due to Covid19. “It has been observed that due to the prevailing Covid19 pandemic, Government-public interaction has got affected in recent weeks. Due to limited mobility, the general public having grievances/issues in various departments could not visit the Civil Secretariat for their redressal. In order to facilitate the redressal of these grievances, it has been decided that all Administrative Secretaries shall be available for attending public grievances on daily basis (except on days of tour) between 2:30 to 3:30 pm in person or on notified telephone numbers or on video conferencing facility for the redressal of public grievances,” the circular reads. It read that accordingly, it is impressed upon all Administrative Secretaries to fix time slots (preferably 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.) on daily basis for meeting general public/delegation(s)/representative(s) for hearing public grievances.“The schedules/telephone numbers/weblinks shall be widely publicised for the information of the general public,” it added.
Mitigating Covid19
The Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) 500-bedded COVID Hospital at Khonmoh will be completed by June 5. This was divulged when Lt Governor Manoj Sinha visited the site. As per the official word, the deadline to start the trial run of all the facilities has been fixed as June 5 by the LG. The government is also preparing a 25-bedded Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in the facility with a dedicated team of doctors, nurses, dieticians and coordinators. The government is now gearing up to ensure that staffing, medical supplies, durable equipment, diagnostic tools, and other logistics are ready within the timeline. The Hospital has the capacity for 125 ICU beds and 375 beds with oxygen connectivity. The LG asked the officials to equip the facility with CT Scan machines and other medical imaging techniques to be made available at the Hospital. The LG reiterated that the operationalisation of DRDO’s Hospitals in twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar would strengthen Government’s efforts against the Covid pandemic, besides substantially increasing the Covid dedicated bed capacity and treatment in J&K. Health Officials, Divisional, and District administration were directed to lend all possible support to DRDO so that the hospital would be completed within stipulated time. Pertinently, the Lt Governor, on May 29, had inaugurated the DRDO’s 500-bedded Covid hospital in Jammu to ramp up the healthcare infrastructure to effectively deal with the Coronavirus pandemic.
COBAS-6800
The Government Medical Colleges in Srinagar and Jammu formally started installing COBAS 6800 machines. This facility was earlier with SKIMS only.
Both the GMC’s had acquired RTPCR machines in March 2020 and the addition will help them improve the number of tests on a daily basis.
The appliance, installed at a cost of Rs 3.72 crore each will significantly enhance the testing capacity by performing the test on around 1200 additional samples in 24 hours. The machine is a state of art machine requiring minimal human intervention, can perform real-time PCR testing, the gold standard test to detect the presence of novel Coronavirus.
The COBAS 6800 can also be utilized to detect other pathogens like Viral Hepatitis B and C, HIV, MTb, Papilloma, CMV, Chlamydia, Neisseria or other novel agents. It has the capacity to test for identifying diverse infections simultaneously. It is a completely mechanized, high-end machine for performing Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests in Real-Time for Covid-19. It is a sophisticated machine enabled with robotics that minimizes the chance of contamination as well as the risk of infection to the health care workers. The completely robotized COBAS 6800 frameworks does not need arranging or clustering of tests, reagent readiness, or manual set-up of runs.
