Declared Covid +ve intentionally, claims Bajwa loyalist MLA Joginder Pal

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, October 24

Bhoa Congress MLA Joginder Pal has raked up a controversy by alleging the Pathankot Civil Surgeon was forced by “some politicians in Chandigarh” to declare him Covid-positive just because he was a loyalist of Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa.

Congress leaders have distanced themselves from the MLA’s allegations, terming these “bizarre, weird and insulting towards the doctors”. The Health Department, prior to the recent Vidhan Sabha session, had instructed the civil surgeons to get all 117 MLAs tested.

At a press conference today, Pal claimed on October 17, Civil Surgeon Dr Jugal Kishore told him he had tested positive. Sensing something fishy, the MLA got himself tested a day later, this time from a private lab, which gave him a negative report.

“It is clear somebody in Chandigarh wanted me to go into isolation and subsequently miss the session. Some politicians, inimical towards my boss Partap Singh Bajwa, had instructed the Civil Surgeon (CS) to fudge records and hand me a positive report,” he alleged. Pal said a day after he received the private lab report, government doctors again got him tested. “Again, they told me I was positive. This indicates they were adamant on declaring me Covid-positive, while actually I was not. Based on the first report, I was forced to miss the Assembly session. All this happened because I am a supporter of a politician who is at daggers drawn with the CM,” he maintained.

Dr Kishore said he had got the second test conducted because doubts had surfaced in the first one. “As for the negative report given by the private lab, he must have been carrying a lower viral load that day,” said the CS.

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