The Jadavpur University unit of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has appealed to the varsity authorities to provide the oxygen cylinders used in the university laboratories to hospitals  for treating Covid-19 patients.

The Jadavpur local committee of the SFI, the students’ wing of the CPM has made the appeal in the light of reports that several hospitals and nursing homes were battling to treat the increasing number of Covid-19 patients because of shortage of oxygen cylinders.

According to reports there was sufficient stock of oxygen but hospitals were facing a crisis of oxygen as there was an acute shortage of empty cylinders for transporting the oxygen. 

The students ‘body has written a letter to Jadavpur University vice-chancellor Suranjan Das requesting him to grant the permission. 

Responding to the appeal, vice-chancellor Suranjan Das  said the authorities have no objection if the cylinders are used by hospitals and nursing homes for treating Covid-19 patients.

But according to him the permission can be granted to the students only after the university confirms whether the cylinders which had been allotted to the university for use of doing experiments in laboratories could be used for medical purposes.

“We have accepted the proposal. But the cylinders were allotted to us for the use of research and other education purposes. We need to find out whether we can give the cylinders to another organization. We can release the cylinders once we get the confirmation,” Suranjan Das told EducationWorld.

Das said he has asked the dean of engineering and technology faculty to examine the proposal.

The university also needs to get a clearance from people from the medical field on whether the cylinders could be used for medical purposes.

Tarpan Sarkar of the SFI said most of the gas cylinders in the university are used for storing nitrogen gas which is mostly used in the laboratories.

“But there are certain procedures by which the cylinders used for storing nitrogen can be converted for storing oxygen. Oxygen wash is one such procedure. It is our appeal to the authorities to take the opinion of persons dealing with these procedures and release the cylinders  for storing medical oxygen at the earliest,” Tarpan Sarkar told EducationWorld.

However, according to a teacher of Jadavpur University , medical grade oxygen cylinders have specific storage and filling protocols to meet the safety and purity standards.