Chandigarh, May 30: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema, slammed the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government for failing to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak in the state in absence of proper health infrastructure and facilities.
In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Sunday, Harpal Singh Cheema said that the poor condition of the health infrastructure in the state stands exposed with inefficiency on the part of the Captain government, coming to light.
Cheema said that while the country grapples with Covid 19, Punjab fared the worst with the highest mortality rate in the country at 2.38% against a national average of 1.1%.
Holding Captain Amarinder Singh and his government responsible for the Covid related deaths, Cheema said that there was no ICU bed in 17 districts of the state, with inadequate arrangement and health facilities at majority of the government hospitals.
“17 districts have gone without ICU beds in government hospitals with people left to shed their lifelong savings in private hospitals. The Captain government has failed to provide facilities to the people of Punjab and has left them at God’s mercy,” he added.
Cheema said that with not even a single level-3 bed in these districts, the Captain government had handed over the lives of critical patients to hospitals, who often face criticism of being extortionist.
The AAP leader said that the second wave of Covid pandemic had proved to be very deadly for the people of Punjab and now the problem of black fungus had further increased the death toll.
He said that the people of Punjab were in distress due to Covid but the Chief Minister was enjoying his farmhouse.
“Protecting the people of Punjab was not even a priority of Captain Amarinder Singh. Such a weak CM like him is disastrous for the state,” said Cheema, adding that Captain Amarinder should apologise to the people for his failures and should quit by listening to his conscience.
He said that the government had no provision to save the lives of common people.
Taking a dig at Captain Amarinder Singh, the LoP said that it was another mission, that Captain Amariner could not ‘Fateh’. Cheema said that the rural areas fare even worse and even the primary healthcare system remains absent.
“Rather than building new infrastructure at war footing, the Captain government is downsizing the medical staff. Recently, the government scrapped the position of RMOs at subsidiary health centers serving 3,000 villages, thus depriving people from medical services,” he added.
Cheema said that it was the responsibility of the Captain government to make arrangements and treat the victims to prevent the spread of Covid but the government had failed miserably.
He appealed to the Chief Minister to immediately make adequate arrangements for ICU beds in the districts and other medical facilities with recruitment of doctors and medical staff to improve the health services in the state.
