The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has said that the national lockdown, which came into force on March 22, after the outbreak of corona virus epidemic, had been relaxed by the government partially easing out conditions, adding that an aggressive public awareness on the deadly disease and steps to contain the disease were desperately needed to checkmate the spread, especially when no vaccine or drug was available.These views were expressed by party’s senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema and Chairman, State Core Committee and MLA Principal Budh Ram on Monday while interacting with the media at party headquarters. Other present on the occasion were party core committee members Gerry Birring, Sukhwinder Sukhi, Harchand Singh Bursat, spokesperson Govinder Mittal and Sandeep Singla.Harpal Singh Cheema said that during these distressing times amid lockdown/ curfew, the Aam Aadmi Party, rising above the petty party politics, stood shoulder to shoulder with the decisions of the government, while spearheading a number of public awareness campaigns on the epidemic on its own, and did everything possible to alleviating the sufferings of those in distress.Cheema said that apart from acting as a plank between the public and the government by carrying forward the peoples’ grievances to the government for redressal through the media and social media platforms, adding that AAP, through its public awareness campaign, christened ‘Corona Sewak’ had reached out to some 3,56,743 people sensitizing them about the prevention of the deadly virus telephonically. He said that, on the basis of the feedback received from the people at large, it came to the fore that much more was needed to be still done to check the spread of the corona virus.
Speaking on the occasion, Principal Budh Ram said: "We do not believe in criticism for the heck of it, but we can say that in the big battle against the epidemic, the Narendra Modi government at the Center and state government led by Capt. Amarinder Singh in Punjab had abysmally failed to tackle the situation", adding that the inability and ineptitude of the chief minister and other ministers of the ruling Congress party, the deplorable health services and the state's poor fiscal health, stood exposed in terms of efficaciously dealing with the challenges thrown up by the killer pandemic. Principal Budh Ram said that Capt. Amarinder Singh needed to learn a lot from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on how to deal with a difficult situation.During the extended lockdown, the AAP leaders saluted the frontline corona warriors, including doctors, nurses, Anganwadi and Asha workers, paramedical staff, sanitation staff, police administration and social organizations fighting against the virus. He said that not only this, the party launched a relentless 'I am Manjit Singh' campaign to buy justice for the family of PRTC driver Manjit Singh, following which the government was persuaded to pay a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to each and 'Corona martyr' fighting against Corona, besides distributing rations, sanitizers, medicines to the needy and sanitized villages and towns on a large scale by operating the machines themselves. He added that thousands of Punjabis stranded in Delhi, including Gurdwara Majnu Ka Tilla, and other parts of the country were brought back to their home state. He said state unit president and MP Bhagwant Mann had facilitated safe return of the Punjabis stuck on foreign shores with the help of union External Affairs Ministery and Union Home Minister.