Food & Civil Supplies chief suffers heart attack at program

Dimapur, Jan. 16: Nagaland’s Secretary and Commissioner for Food and Civil Supplies Ramongo Lotha suffered a heart attack during the inaugural programme of the SAKSHAM 2017- Oil and Conservation awareness drive in which he was attending as the event’s chief guest at Unity College in Dimapur.
Following the incident, the official was rushed to a nearby hospital. Ramongo Lotha was delivering the inaugural speech to students when he suddenly collapsed.

His condition was said to be stable but under observation, his associates informed.

Prior to the unfortunate incident, Lotha encouraged the students to be agents in creating awareness for conservation and economic use of oil and petroleum. India stands as the third largest consumer of energy in the world, with a high demand for petroleum products, he said. Nagaland is also one of the highest consumers of fuel as the state also ranks among states with the highest number of vehicles in the country.

To reduce the ‘hazard,’ the official called upon the students to be agents to conserve the natural resource.

Also, drawing attention to the crude oil industry in the country, the officer remarked that ‘India imports 80% of crude oil because of limited resources. Unless one takes care in conserving the import percentage will enhance, ultimately affecting the global economy of the country, he said.

Awareness programmes about conservation of petroleum oil and natural gas are significant for citizens, Lotha had said.

The state level coordinator of the oil industry in Nagaland, DK Pathakalso spoke during the event. He highlighted to the participants this year’s directives from the Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA), under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to observe for the month-long programme that will take place from January 16 to February 15, 2017. Various activities are to be taken up this year for the state as part of the event.

Along with the rest of the country SAKSHAM-2017 was inaugurated for the state at Unity College in Dimapur on January 16.

PCRA and Oil & Gas Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas are organising the SAKSHAM 2017 campaign to sensitize the masses about conservation and efficient use of petroleum products. The objective is to achieve better health and environment and securing availability of oil and gas for future generations.

This campaign aims at showing the way forward towards enhancing conservation capabilities of the people and to help the community understand the need, issues and solutions; conservation and effective utilization of petroleum products; to give the message that collective participation was the key to conservation efforts.