PESHAWAR
The caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Azam Khan on Friday paid a visit to district Charsadda where he inaugurated the newly established state of the art Oxygen Generation Plant at Women and Children Hospital Rajar.
The plant having the oxygen production capacity of 500 liters per minute has been established at a cost of Rs 105 million with the financial support of United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the oxygen plant, the Chief Minister said the establishment of Oxygen Generation Plant was really a great achievement which will not only ensure uninterrupted supply of medical oxygen to women and children hospital Rajjar but would also be helpful to meet the requirement of oxygen at other hospitals of Charsadda and adjacent districts.
He said that the plant can also become an important source of revenue generation for Women and Children Hospital Rajar by providing additional oxygen to the private sector hospitals.
The chief minister added that thousands of children died due to unavailability of oxygen; and establishing this state of the art oxygen generation plant was truly a blessing for the children suffering from pneumonia, corona and other such diseases.
He maintained that establishment of such plant had become dire need after the outbreak of Corona Pandemic adding that the plant will play an important role to save thousands of precious human lives by ensuring uninterrupted supply of oxygen to the hospitals.
Muhammad Azam Khan thanked UNICEF for extending its assistance in establishing the oxygen generation plant, and termed this a great initiative of UNICEF for the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He also revealed that the UNICEF was also working on setting up another such plant in Abbottabad as well. He requested UNICEF to extend its cooperation in establishing an oxygen generation plant in southern region of the province.
Later, the chief minister also visited various sections of W&C hospital Rajar and directed the quarters concerned to ensure provision of all the required facilities to the patients in hospital.
Meanwhile, talking to media, the chief minister said that the caretaker provincial government was going all out to steer the province out of current financial crunches adding that billions of rupees of the province are due to the federal government on account of different federal transfers.
He said that erstwhile FATA had been merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but the share of newly merged districts in NFC has not yet been provided. “In order to resolve the financial issues of the province, a number of letters have been sent to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and federal finance minister,” he told.
Responding to a question on this occasion, the Chief minister said that he had requested the political leaders in a joint session the other day for their cooperation to get the legitimate rights of the province adding that he, along with other political leaders met Prime Minister during his recent visit to Peshawar and briefed him in details about the financial constraints of the province.
Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and other relevant authorities of federal government were also present in that meeting. He made it clear that it was the first priority of the caretaker provincial government to steer the province out of current financial issues adding that all possible efforts would be made for this purpose.
In response to another question, Muhammad Azam khan said if there had been financial irregularities in the past, it is the responsibility of NAB and other relevant institutions to investigate it.
