UPL contributes Rs 75 cr to PM-CARES fund

Agrochemical firm UPL Limited on Friday pledged to contribute Rs 75 crore to PM-CARES fund in assisting the government to fight against the coronavirus pandemic which has claimed the lives of over 50 people and infected more than 2,300 others.

The Mumbai-based agricultural solutions company has also kept on standby the premises of its educational institutions such as Gyan Dham School and Sandra Shroff Rofel College of Nursing, both at Vapi in Gujarat, with necessary arrangements to operate as quarantine centres as and when required, it said.

It is also continuously providing large numbers of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to frontline healthcare and sanitisation workers who are fighting the battle against the novel coronavirus, the company said in a statement.

Jai Shroff, the CEO of UPL Limited, said: "These are very challenging times for the entire mankind, and we find ourselves duty-bound to serve the nation and assist with our resources and expertise in this critical fight. As a responsible corporate, we remain committed to support the government of India and various state governments in every possible manner.

The company said that it is additionally supplementing the Central and state governments' efforts by engaging 200 modern mechanical spraying machines (falcons) and 225 staff members to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The company teams are assisting local administrations by providing services of disinfectant spraying at various public and private spaces such as hospitals, streets, police stations, railway stations, municipal corporations among others.

Tushar Trivedi, Head, AFS, UPL said: "We recognise that keeping public spaces disinfected is one of the most important aspects in checking the spread of coronavirus. Upon call from the authorities, we quickly aligned our resources and deputed our mechanised spraying vehicles to disinfect public spaces with Sodium Hypochloride provided by the government".

The company has so far sprayed 11.5 lakh litre of disinfectant solution Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, and is working to extend the exercise to other states as identified by the government.

UPL has also mobilised its operational capabilities to manufacture hand sanitisers produced as per the WHO guidelines for distribution to police and municipal corporations.

The Union Health Ministry said on Friday that there have been 2,301 cases of COVID-19 in India and 56 deaths, out of which 12 were reported since Thursday.