As Oxygen crisis grapples various cities, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said on Sunday that PM CARES Fund will be utilized to set up 551 oxygen generation plants in public health facilities across the country. The PMO added that the OG plants, which will be made operational “as soon as possible”, will ensure uninterrupted supply of oxygen in government hospitals at district headquarters.

This announcement from PMO comes at a time when several hospitals in the country have complained of severe shortages of medical oxygen, leading to the deaths of many people.

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The PMO stated in a press release, “In line with Prime Minister’s direction of boosting availability of oxygen to hospitals, the PM CARES Fund has given in-principle approval for allocation of funds for installation of 551 dedicated Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Medical Oxygen Generation Plants inside public health facilities in the country. PM has directed that these plants should be made functional as soon as possible. He said that these plants will serve as a major boost to oxygen availability at the district level.”

It further added that the in-house oxygen generation facility would address “day to day medical oxygen needs of these hospitals and the district”.

The PMO said that the PM CARES fund had earlier this year allocated Rs 201.58 crore for installation of an additional 162 dedicated PSA Medical Oxygen Generation Plants inside public health facilities in the country.

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Opacity of PMCARES

The PMCARES fund has been mired in controversy over a lack of transparency. There is no concrete data on exactly how much money has been collected as a whole in this fund. Officials have said that the PM CARES Fund will be audited by an independent auditor, and the trustees had chosen M/s SARC & Associates, Chartered Accountants, New Delhi as the auditors for 3 years.

With limited information available about how the PMCARES fund is run, political opponents have lashed out at the BJP alleging foul play. The situation is not helped by the fact that RTI requests pertaining to this fund have been blocked in the past. An RTI applicant had been told, “PM CARES Fund is not a Public Authority under the ambit of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005.”