Rae Bareli, May 20 (IANS): Bollywood actor Sonu Sood and poet Kumar Vishwas have come forward to support the 'Aao Gaon Bachayen' campaign started by comic poet and satirist Pankaj Prasun.

Under the campaign, residents of 30 villages in six village panchayat blocks of Rae Bareli district would be provided Covid medicines, oximeters, thermometers and ration kits, along with oxygen support in Covid care centres.

According to Pankaj Prasun, "I tagged Sonu Sood and Kumar Vishwas in my tweet seeking oxygen concentrators for rural masses. Kumar Vishwas retweeted it, saying 'Sonu Sood, please send three oxygen concentrators for the poor or else I will arrange from Ghaziabad.' Within a few minutes Sonu Sood tweeted, 'Be assured , it will reach! Just send me your address (samjho pahunch gaya,aap pata bhejo)."

He said, "I was surprised to see a busy Bollywood actor reacting to our tweets within five minutes. There is only one Level 3 hospital in Rae Bareli and there is a long queue in other hospitals which are either L1 or L2. During the pandemic, the importance of oxygen in saving lives has been felt. That's why these oxygen concentrators would be very important for the rural masses."

Prasun said, "I turned Covid positive on April 7 and then I realized how difficult it is to get treated for Covid . During the recovery I kept on thinking about the way I can help those who are living in rural areas, and I came up with this idea."

He said, "With limited resources we have selected six gram sabhas of Sahjaura, Lohra, Raula, Domapur, Mustafabad Belhani, Mau Garvi, Govindpur and Merui under which around 32 villages would be covered. We will request the authorities to allow panchayat bhawans and schools to be used as Covid care centres, from where we can distribute our ration kits, medicine kits, thermometers, oximeters and provide oxygen."

Rae Bareli is the parliamentary constituency of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi.