BHOPAL: As Indore struggles to cope with the high number of COVID-19 cases, making it one of the hotspots in India, citizens ranging from a hotelier, businessman and doctor have come forward to not only help the administration fight the virus but are also serving the needy.
Mukesh Arora, a leading hotelier in the city, has given out Hotel Shreemaya to the district administration for use by medical teams and other officials who are in the frontlines of the battle against the deadly virus.
Mhow-based businessman Nitin Agrawal has so far spent over Rs 20 lakh helping daily wagers, migrant labourers returning to Madhya Pradesh and those rendering critical supplies to the Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital in Indore.
He is doing it under the auspices of PATH Foundation.
According to Agrawal, 2,500 plus food packets are being sent to the needy every day, besides providing 4,500 plus personal protective equipment (PPE) to Maharaja Yeshwantrao (MY) Hospital.
“We’re working in coordination with MY Hospital and Indore district administration. We have also provided an ambulance to the hospital. We’ve been given clearance by the NHAI to distribute food and other help to truckers,” he said.
Another businessman Neeraj Desai, who is into making PPEs has so far donated 100 PPE kits to the MY Hospital, which is treating the bulk of the COVID-19 positive patients.
“Owing to proactive people like Desai and Agrawal, the hospital has managed to cope with any shortage of medical equipment and services supplies,” said Dr Sumit Shukla, professor of surgery at the MGM Medical College.
Indore’s Rajiv Sanghi, who runs a construction equipment business, is also supplying food to daily wagers and the needy.
He has been supplying food bags (containing three kg rice, one kg pulses, besides spices and salts) to daily wagers, students stuck in the city and migrant labourers on way from Gujarat to Gwalior. Till Saturday, Sanghi has given 2,500 food bags.
Like Sanghi, another businessman Ankit Mittal has supplied over 1,600 food bags to the needy in the city.