Lack of facilities at Covid centres a matter of concern: Harpal Cheema

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 12

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema, while expressing deep concern over the spread of coronavirus in major cities of the state, said the overbearing attitude of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu had been wreaking havoc with the lives of the people of Punjab fighting the big battle against the pandemic.

Harpal Singh said this during a media interaction in the party office here on the issue of Covid-19 pandemic. Others present on the occasion were Dr Shiv Dayal Mali, Dr Sanjeev Sharma, advocate Kashmir Singh Malhi, Kartar Singh, Rajwinder Kaur and Lakhvir Singh Lakha.

He said the unprecedented spike in the cases in some major cities of the state, including Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala and Mohali was worrying while the condition of the government hospitals and coronavirus care centres was far from being satisfactory. He said it was a matter of shame for the government that patients in a Bathinda facility had to climb rooftop to ventilate their ire against the mismanagement and lack of facilities, including food, while eight had to run away from the centre for the same reasons.

The Leader of Opposition said the number of new cases and deaths due to the virus had been increasing rapidly for the last 10 days, while the recovery rate had been at 65 per cent, which was quite disappointing. He said the virus testing was only 0.18 per cent of the total population of Punjab, which spoke of the poor arrangements of the government to combat the killer virus.

He said the situation was getting out of control with the Chief Minister himself predicting the peak of coronavirus in September, which, he said, was a cause of grave concern. Harpal Singh said AAP had suggested to CM Amarinder Singh and Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu to replicate the Delhi model in the state, but had instead ridiculed the same owing to their arrogant and overbearing attitude, saying the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi had succeeded in controlling the virus with recovery rate of 91 per cent.