Clearing The Interest Subvention
Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha approved the further release of Rs 250 crore as Interest Subvention, part of the economic package for revival of business and industry in J&K, and handed over a cheque of the said amount to Jammu and Kashmir Bank as the third instalment of the 5% Interest Subvention, an official spokesman in Jammu said. It was the third instalment. The government of J&K had already released Rs 500 crore so far, and with the third instalment of Rs 250 crore as 5% Interest Subvention was released as part of the overall package of Rs 1353 crore. The Interest Subvention has so far provided immense relief to 3.44 lakh borrowers in the current Covid-19 crisis. The J&K government had announced a mega Relief and Revival Package of Rs 1353 crore on September 19, 2020, to help J&K business sector to tide over the Covid-19 crisis and other difficulties.
The business revival package involved relief measures, both financial and non-financial, aimed primarily at the sectors which had been most affected by the ongoing situation so as to achieve sustainable and continued growth. The Lt Governor observed that the core component of the package was Rs 950 crore as 5% Interest Subvention to all borrowers. Apart from Interest Subvention, Local and MSME filters have also been operationalised on GeM enabling all departments in J&K to procure Goods and Services from the local manufacturers.
Twin DRDO Hospitals
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has started construction work of a 500-bed Covid-19 hospital each at Bhagwati Nagar in Jammu and Budgam in Kashmir. The work is going on round the clock. The government has transferred state land to the DRDO at both the places for the two major facilities. The hospitals are supposed to be joint initiatives of the DRDO and the Jammu and Kashmir government. The hospitals will mostly be prefab structures with 500 isolation beds with Oxygen support to 125-ICU beds.
“The Hospital will have also 50-double room accommodation facility for doctors and paramedics staff and at least two liquid oxygen tanks each of 20 kl capacity will be in place to provide high flow of oxygen at every bed,” reports appearing in media said. A general expectation is that the twin facilities will be up and operational by the end of May.
More Oxygen Supported Beds
With the existing health infrastructure under massive pressure and nothing much to spare for an additional load that the unruly pandemic is generating, Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor has initiated the process of adding to the Oxygen supported bed capacity. He visited the Northern Command and asked Lieutenant General Y K Joshi to add up 200, instead of 100 Oxygen supported beds. He suggested this happen at Public School Domana. The army has already created 250-beds at Rangreth in the Srinagar periphery.
Earlier, he directed adding up of an additional 1325 bed capacity with oxygen support in the Jammu division within five days. In the case of Kashmir, on Sinha’s directions, the authorities are working to set up additional 1050-Oxygen-supported beds. The officials have already started implementing the order and various spaces across Kashmir, especially in the periphery of Srinagar are currently being upgraded. Officials have roped in Kashmir’s best charities and social workgroups to implement the order.
Incentives For Frontline Workers
In recognition of the services rendered during the Covid19 pandemic, the Jammu and Kashmir Government has granted sanction to the incentives to Covid19 warriors of the Health and Medical Education (H&ME) Department. The incentives include Rs 10,000 each for Resident Doctors/ PGs and Medical Officers, RS 7,000 for paramedical staff/Nursing staff, Rs 5000 each for Class-IV. These special incentives shall be exclusively for those health frontline workers who directly deal with the Covid19 patients and the tenure of these incentives shall be for the peak pandemic period, for three months, starting from May 2021. By another order, all the due retirements have been cancelled till the 2021 end. The decision will benefit more than 17,000 Corona warriors.
Haj House Is 100-Bed Covid19 Facility
Within a week, District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), Srinagar has established an oxygenated 100-beded capacity Covid19 care facility at Haj House Bemina. CMO Srinagar said the patients referred by a physician having mild symptoms of Covid-19 infection and require oxygen support of fewer than 10 litres per minute can be admitted for Isolation as well as treatment. He further added that the Health Department is in the process of procuring more Bulk Oxygen Cylinders and Oxygen Concentrators to augment the bed capacity at Hajj House.
It was informed that all 100 beds have been provided by the R&B department while PHE has made adequate arrangements for ensuring 24×7 water supply besides PDD has taken all measures to ensure uninterrupted Power supply at Hajj house. The PDD has also set up a 63 KVA capacity DG set as back up to overcome any power failure. A Fire Tender from Fire and Emergency Department remains stationed at Haj House as a precautionary measure.
