While urging to take the escalating corona pandemic in Punjab seriously, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has demanded from the Punjab Government especially the Hon’ble Governor of the State that learning lessons from past outbreaks of corona, war-level reforms in the health services are required urgently and the government must take immediate steps to address the shortcomings in government hospitals and dispensaries. At the same time, special guidelines should be issued for private sector health services so that private hospitals and laboratories do not take undue advantage of the patients and charge them exorbitant rates as was done in the past.In a statement issued from the party headquarters on Saturday, MLA Aman Arora said that the third wave of corona pandemic was raging in Punjab and thousands of corona patients were being detected every day. He said that on January 14, more than 7,600 corona cases were reported while 21 patients died due to corona. As many as 34,000 corona cases have been found in Punjab till January 14.
MLA Arora said that the growing influence of Corona in Punjab was a matter of worry and the ruling Congress party and Akali Dal Badal and Bhartiya Janata Party were responsible for this as these political parties had conspired and ruined the government health system and promoted private hospitals in Punjab He said that Congress government had not taken necessary steps to prevent the onset of Corona epidemic. Instead, crores of rupees have been squandered from the exchequer under 'Mission Fateh'. The ruling Congress has been reluctant to make the vaccination campaign effective, which has resulted in the people of the state not yet getting the necessary vaccines to protect them from coronavirus. The people of the state are being harassed for getting vaccinated in government hospitals and covid care centers.The AAP leaders said that the ruling Congress has ignored all the important issues of Punjab and is busy in fighting against each other. The vaccination campaign would have been completed and the people of Punjab would not have been affected by the third wave of corona if the Covid 19 vaccination campaign had been carried out properly.
Accusing the Narendra Modi government at the Centre of discriminating against Punjab, Arora said that the Modi government had not provided the required vaccines to Punjab due to which the people of Punjab have lagged behind in vaccination. He said that due to non-immunization, the prevalence of corona in Punjab has reached 21.19 percent, so the Modi government should abandon the spirit of vengeance and send adequate doses of corona vaccine to the people of the state so that the people of Punjab can get vaccinated and safe themselves from third wave.Aman Arora demanded that learning from past Corona attacks, in order to save the people of Punjab from the outbreak of Corona pandemic, it was imperative that government health services be strengthened and that Corona patients should not be left at the mercy of private hospitals. He claimed that the people of Punjab had decided to form an AAP government in the state as the Kejriwal government in Delhi had done an exemplary work in providing health, education and public amenities.