Sanjay R. Bhoosreddy, Commissioner Cane and sugar, Uttar Pradesh works from the fifth floor of the white-colored building of the Sugarcane Institute in Dalibagh, Lucknow.
It is mandatory to stand in front of a ‘fabricated’ wash basin before entering this building. Visitors are supposed to put their hand on the wash basin. As soon as they do so, there will a shower of liquid soap from a point of the basin.
Water comes out of the tap, only after you rub your hands for 25 seconds after you have liquid soap in your hands.
Washing your hands is not enough. You also have to sanitize your hands, only then you can enter the building. For this purpose, a bottle of sanitizer is also placed next to the basin.
First thing you will notice after entering Bhoosreddy’s room is the English saying “The Buck stops here”, written in bold letters on a piece of wood.
The slogan ‘The buck stops here’ is a promise that responsibility will not be passed on to anyone else. Popularized by US president Harry Truman. The phrase is based on the metaphorical expression passing the buck, derived from poker gameplay, that came to mean “passing blame”, or absolving oneself of responsibility or concern by denying authority or jurisdiction over a given matter.
And the buck stops with him. under his able leadership, the state’s excise and sugar industry and Cane development department have ensured sufficient production of sanitizer to ensure uninterrupted supplies of sanitizer along with making “Bhagirath attempt” to flow the “Ganga of Sanitizer” into other states.
Licenses were provided to the units manufacturing sanitizer and through these units and sugar mills, Initially, the target was to make sixty thousand litres of sanitizer per day, which has now increased to two lakh litres per day.
Out of 85 units engaged in sanitizer production in Uttar Pradesh includes 27 sugar mills, 12 distilleries and 37 sanitizer manufacturing companies and 09 other institutions. Total production of 39,10,300 litres sanitizer has been done till date in the state and 29,79,700 litres of sanitizer have been supplied in the market and 33,77,500 sanitizer packs are still available for sale.
Alcohol-based versions typically contain some combination of isopropyl alcohol, ethanol (ethyl alcohol), or n-propanol, with versions containing 60% to 95% alcohol the most effective.
Iso propylene alcohols are manufactured on a large scale in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The sudden massive increase in demand for alcohol-based sanitiser, a highly-effective weapon that kills novel coronavirus within 20 seconds, has turned around the fortunes of excise department.
Sanjay, who is also currently serving as the Principal Secretary to Excise, came to know that the distilleries of sugar mills in UP have sufficient amount of ethyl alcohol.
Principal secretary, excise and sugar, Sanjay Bhoosreddy floated the idea that distilleries and sugar mills should start producing sanitiser. The idea clicked and has been paying rich dividends.
Total Production Capacity of all 86 Sanitizer Units of UP has reached more than Three Lakh Litres Per Day and out of the total production of 58 Lakh Litres 27 Lakh Litres is being supplied to all the 28 States & UTs for fighting Corona – Wow – Great feat achieved by Uttam Pradesh.
On March 23, there was only one sanitiser unit in the state, in Modi Nagar, but now there are 86. As a result, sanitiser production has zoomed from 500 litres a month on March 23 to 47 lakh litres in last 48 days.
Now, UP is selling sanitiser to all states and Union Terriroties. Total 47 lakh litres of sanitiser was manufactured in UP of which 22 lakh was sold to other states.
While some sugar companies are manufacturing bulk quantities of hand sanitiser themselves or supplying to other firms for bottling and marketing, a few others have signed contracts to supply ethanol/ethyl alcohol/extra neutral alcohol (ENA) to external plants.
Sanitisers are generally manufactured with isopropyl alcohol (IPA), but these have also been found to be effective when made from sugar by-products ethanol/ethyl alcohol/ENA.
(This is the seventh part of the special series on Government officials role in combating the covid 19. Click to read the full series.)
(If you have a good story about a government officer combating the Covid 19 pandemic through innovative approach, please share with us at healthwirenewsbank@gmail.com.)
