Chandigarh, May 21
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema has strongly condemned the ill-treatment of the male nursing staff of AIIMS Bathinda by the Punjab Government and the derogatory remarks made by Cabinet Minister OP Soni. Cheema has also demanded the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to immediately dismiss the Medical Education Minister OP Soni from the ministry. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Friday, Harpal Singh Cheema said that the Captain government of Punjab had failed to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, as no provision had been made in the government hospitals of the state for doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and technical system.
Cheema said that in order to save the lives of the common man in such a dire situation, the female and male nursing staff of AIIMS Bathinda had rendered their services in the hospitals across the state. However, due to non-provision of necessary facilities to the male nursing staff by the management of Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, the staff had to go back, for which the Punjab Government was responsible, he added. “Captain Amarinder Singh‘s Medical Education Minister O P Soni has been blaming the failures of his government on the nursing staff and using bad language against them,” said Cheema. He further said that the Punjab government should have provided necessary facilities to the nursing staff of AIIMS as they had come to Patiala to save the lives of the Covid victims.
The LoP further said that the death toll from Covid at Government Rajindra Hospital in the hometown of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh was the highest in the state. “The staff serving in the Covid wards needed special facilities, which must be provided by the government and not to blame the staff,” he added. Cheema said that Medical Education Minister OP Soni had termed the decision of the AIIMS staff to refuse to work in Rajindra Hospital as a betrayal. “Will the Cabinet Minister explain why he did not make the necessary arrangements for the AIIMS staff? Didn’t the Captain government deceive the people of Punjab by not providing treatment in government hospitals?” said Cheema. He said that the Captain government was running away from its responsibilities by blaming the AIIMS staff.
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