Bhubaneswar, June 10: Vedanta Jharsuguda, India’s largest producer of aluminium and value-added products, has supported the ICU facility with essential medical equipment at Jharsuguda’s District COVID Hospital.
The newly ramped up ICU was inaugurated on Wednesday by today by State Health & Family Welfare Minister Naba Kisore Das at avirtual ceremony, in the presence of Bargarh MP Suresh Pujari, Brajarajnagar MLA Kishore Kumar Mohanty, district Collector Saroj Kumar Samal,
Representing Vedanta, Harshpal Singh, Chief Commercial Officer – Aluminium Business, and Birendra Tiwari, Head – Township Administration and Jharsuguda Site Advocacy, attended the virtual inauguration ceremony.
Combating the ongoing second COVID wave, the company supported the District COVID Hospital in Jharsuguda with20 ICU beds, 20 ventilators, 200 oxygen flowmeters and 2000 N95 masks, aiding the district administration’s endeavours to provide proper treatment to those ailing from the disease. It has also installed a diesel generator (DG) set at the hospital to ensure uninterrupted supply of power, and provided a 24×7 ambulance with healthcare workers for logistics support. Vedanta’s support comes at a crucial times to the district administration as they relentlessly battle the pandemic to safeguard the people of Jharsuguda.
Last year, the company had helped set up the District COVID Hospital, by providing infrastructure and medical equipment such as beds and ICUs, ventilators, PPE and corona kits, oxygen cylinders and concentrators, medicines, and other essential supplies.
Vedanta distributed over 1.6 lakh masks to the community and frontline workers. The masks were stitched by local women’s SHG under Subhalaxmi Cooperative, Vedanta’s flagship women empowerment project in Jharsuguda, thus providing them with a safe means of livelihood during the lockdown. More than 3300 ration kits were distributed to daily wage earners, slum dwellers and under-served families. Extensive awareness sessions on COVID were conducted across remote villages, and sanitization and disinfection activities were carried out in peripheral villages, public spaces, government offices, etc.
Vedanta’s social interventions in the domains of quality education sustainable livelihood, women empowerment, health, water and sanitation, bio-investment and community infrastructure reach out to a total of 72 villages in Jharsuguda and nearby areas, benefiting nearly 80,000 people in a year. It empowers more than 4,000 women from over 330 SHGs, provides doorstep healthcare services to about 32,000 people annually, gives educational support to more than 6400 students, has planted more than 1.48 lakh trees in partnership with the community, and built 570 plus infrastructural projects at community level.
