Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy on Wednesday assured the people of Secunderabad Cantonment that he would speak with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and see that the Cantonment Hospital here is converted into a full fledged COVID care centre.
The Minister was visibly irked with the Secunderabad Cantonment Board authorities for not making use of the new buildings kept under lock and pointed out that the government has given freedom to recruit retired or ex-paramedical staff and doctors to be employed again if there is a shortage of personnel.
“What were you doing? What stopped the SCB from alloting funds?” he said in reaction to a complaint that the Health Minister had promised funds but it did not materialise.
Later, talking to the media, he said efforts were on to ensure supply of oxygen, ventilators and medicines is augmented to the hospitals across the country. In the past 11 months, 51,000 ventilators have been imported and permissions have been given for 500 units to produce oxygen 24x7.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been communicating regularly with Chief Ministers of all the States, and the Home Ministry, too, is involved in providing life-saving equipment marshalling the trains and armed forces planes too. Many countries have also been rushing aid, he added.
