400-bed Rakab Ganj COVID facility opens on Monday

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 9

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) announced on Sunday that the Covid-care facility at Rakab Ganj Gurdwara opens May 10 and will have 400 beds to mark the 400th anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur. 

It will all facilities, complete with oxygen concentrators, doctors, paramedics and own ambulances. No money will be charged from patients, all medicines, oxygen and food would be free. The donations made by the Sangat (community) are enough, said DSGMC President Manjinder Singh Sirsa at a press conference.

The facility was planned for 250 beds, however, the Delhi Government has promised all help. It will now have 400 beds. The local District Magistrate is the nodal officer for the government while DSGMC General Secretary Harmit Singh Kalka will be coordinating the facility.

For emergency and ICU care services, the Rakab Ganj facility will be attached to the  Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital.

On being asked if the DSGMC was planning to seek the oxygen concentrators caught by Delhi police from hoarders, Sirsa said “we don’t want such ill-gotten things of black marketeers in our Gurdwara”.

Among several donors, the DSGMC chief thanked movie star Amitabh Bachchan for having donated Rs 2 crore for creation of the facility. Sirsa said Bachchan had been assured him not to worry on money part and asked just to save most number of lives. Bachhan’s mother Tejwant Kaur Suri – known as Teji Bacchan – was born into a Sikh Family.  

Yesterday,  Sirsa had tweeted to thank film-maker Rohit Shetty for his donation.

Delhi-based philanthropist Vikramjit Singh Sahney of the World Punjabi Organisation has donated 200 oxygen concentrators to the facility, Sirsa thanked him too.  

The Bhai Lakhi Shah Vanjara community Hall at historic Gurdwara Rakab Ganj has been converted into a makeshift facility. The Gurdwara is located in central Delhi and stands at the place where Guru Tegh Bahadur was cremated.