Cut expenses to prepare war chest, CM tells depts

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 4

To generate resources to deal with Covid-19, the state government has asked all departments to cut expenditure. The departments have been asked to submit detailed proposals by April 8 on where funds can be saved over the next few weeks.

May extend Curfew

The CM is learnt to have indicated to his colleagues that the curfew curbs might have to be extended. The cases could peak in May or June or could subside earlier. The trend in the country and the state, as well as the threat of community spread of the infection would be the deciding factors, sources say.

“We have to save people. It should be our priority,” said Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh at a meeting of the council of ministers. He said resources had to be made available to the health, police and other departments directly involved in the current battle, which “threatens to be a long one”.

Hospitals shutting shop to face action

With an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases and apprehensions of community spread, the Cabinet decided to gradually scale up the arrangements to deal with the situation. Taking note of shutdown of operations by several private hospitals, the Cabinet decided to take strict action against such hospitals. Also, licences of hospitals refusing to treat patients will be cancelled.

With no additional revenues coming in, the only way out was to cut expenditure, he stressed, adding that every department would need to make cuts in order to generate revenue for the critical care services. Finance Minister Manpreet Badal said the state would suffer Rs5,000 crore in revenue losses in April, and the figure was expected to go up further in the absence of revenue from GST and petroleum taxes.

Sources said on the pattern of the PSPCL, the state government could come up with a proposal to stagger the payment of salaries to its employees. The Finance Department is learnt to be working on the financial burden involved in paying salaries to its employees. Any decision in this regard is expected to be taken in the coming days.

Besides, the Cabinet authorised the extension for all retiring health officials by three months as proposed by Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh.

Capt Amarinder has warned of strict action, including impounding of passports, of those who fail to declare their travel history.

He said there could be no compromise on this count and anyone found hiding their travel history from police/health officials would be dealt with strictly. “We will take away their passports too,” he warned.

Insurance for cops, sanitation workers

The government has announced special health insurance cover of Rs50 lakh each for the police personnel and sanitation workers in the frontline of the battle against Covid-19 on the lines of Centre's announcement for health workers.

Meanwhile, contact tracing of the Nizamuddin returnees was being done on an aggressive scale and 192 persons from the list of 255 received by the state had already been tested and isolated, health officials said. In addition, tracking was being done for all foreign-returned as well as high-risk categories such as healthcare professionals, police etc.

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