Chandigarh: With the coronavirus pandemic spreading rapidly in rural areas, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh urged villagers to only allow COVID-negative people to enter their villages.“Now the rural areas are seeing a surge in (COVID-19) cases, so we need to be very careful,” the chief minister said. “Don’’t allow (unwell) people to enter (villages). Ask them to bring a (COVID-negative) certificate from the doctor,” he said.
Amarinder Singh asked villagers to conduct ‘’thikri pehra’’, wherein a few villagers, especially youths, form teams to guard village boundaries to prevent the entry of all outsiders except those providing essential services or government officials.
Exhorting people to “save your neighbourhoods and villages to save yourself, your families and Punjab,” he stressed that one should visit a doctor as soon as they notice the first symptoms of COVID-19. “We have teams of doctors everywhere, approach them if you feel unwell,” Singh said. Noting that there are three stages of the disease, he said the first can be managed at home.
“Let the doctor decide the course of treatment, don’’t get into diagnosis and self-medication,” he added.
Singh said, “I fail to understand why we are harming the interests of the state and your families in this manner. We do not want Punjab to go the way of Delhi and Maharashtra, which have experienced unprecedented problems amid the second COVID wave.”
Urging people to help his government protect Punjab against COVID-19, he said the disease is wreaking havoc all over the world and even the most advanced countries are not immune to it.
As of Thursday, Punjab had recorded 4,75,949 COVID-19 cases and 11,297 deaths, according to a medical bulletin.
The chief minister expressed happiness over the seamless completion of wheat procurement despite the challenges posed by the pandemic and lauded the state’’s farmers for this achievement.
As against 129 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of wheat procured last year, 132 lakh MT has been procured this year. This has resulted in earnings to the tune of Rs 26,000 crore for the farmers as against Rs 24,600 crore last year, Singh said.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday had sought details from the governments of the two states regarding the COVID situation in rural areas.
The court has sought a detailed report from Haryana on the work done at the ground level.
On a query put by the high court bench comprising Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Karamjit Singh to Punjab’s Advocate General Atul Nanda “about monitoring of the situation in the rural areas where virus has spread rapidly”, he submitted that he will file a short affidavit on the next date of hearing. The prayer was accepted by the bench.
The court’s directives came during resumed hearing through video conferencing on a petition pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic management in Punjab, Haryana and UT Chandigarh.
When asked about the spread of the disease in rural areas, Haryana’s Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan submitted that a plan has been drawn up and a senior administrative officer has been deputed for every district in Haryana to monitor the situation. Physical inspection in all rural areas/districts is being carried out.
“This court, however, needs a detailed report of the work done at the ground level. The status report may, thus, be filed in this regard by an officer not below the rank of Additional Chief Secretary, Health,” the bench ordered.AGENCIES