Oxygen langar in Guwahati

Guwahati: With many COVID-19 patients in the city facing problems in getting oxygen cylinders at home, the Khalsa Centre North East (KCNE) is providing them free oxygen concentrators for four days.

Naming the initiative as ‘Free Oxygen Langar’, KCNE chairman Capt P P Singh on Wednesday said the concentrators after four days with a patient will be circulated amongst other needy COVID-19 patients.

The ‘Free Oxygen Langar’ was launched on Monday, he said.

Singh said the oxygen concentrators are given to people for a maximum of seven days by keeping a security deposit of Rs 11,000 which is refunded after the safe return of the machine that cost almost Rs 90,000.

To ensure that maximum people get the benefit, he said the oxygen concentrators are given free for the first four days and thereafter they are charged at the rate of Rs 500 per day so as to discourage people from keeping them for a longer period than actually required.

The service in the city had been started in association with internationally acclaimed Khalsa Aid which has provided 20 machines for the purpose, Singh said.

He said the KCNE has decided to first concentrate on Guwahati city and if required then will try to help people in other districts of the state.

Khalsa Centre North East has been running weekly langar (free food service) for over two years at the North East region’s biggest cancer hospital Dr. B Borooah Cancer Institute in Guwahati. It also provided relief to a large number of people during floods and lockdown last year for 66 days in its fight against hunger from March 2020 to May 2020, Singh said.