With the demand for medical oxygen on the rise in Maharashtra in view of the COVID-19 surge, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday pitched for setting up plants to produce the gas at hospitals itself, an official statement said.

Pawar, who held a meeting to discuss the pandemic situation in the state, ordered district collectors and municipal commissioners to immediately undertake the process to make purchases of plants which can be set up in two to three weeks, it said.