The Punjab Cabinet on Monday held a meeting to take stock of the situation arising out of the COVID-19 outbreak and gave ex-post facto approval to the Chief Minister’s decision on extending the services of the doctors and paramedical staff working with the Health and Family Welfare department.
An official statement said the services had been extended till September 30, 2020, for which a resolution was passed at the meeting as the Cabinet reviewed the reports of the 7-member Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted under the chairmanship of Local Bodies Minister Brahm Mohindra to oversee the preventive measures undertaken to combat the threat.
All doctors and paramedical staff in the department would continue to work irrespective of their age of retirement.
Talking to journalists on the occasion of completion of three years of his government, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said he was committed to elimination of all kinds of mafia and monopoly. He said he would not allow mining, liquor, drug and transport mafias, gangsters and terrorists to disturb the State’s peaceful environment.
The Chief Minister said his government had been working to end all this since taking over Punjab’s reins “but these things take time. We have done our best and we could not have done any better considering the situation,” he said.
Describing unemployment as the biggest concern, he announced that one lakh government vacancies would be filled up in the next two years, through transparent and merit-based system. The aim was to achieve the target of 20 lakh total employment by 2022, he said.
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Asked about the monopoly of a family on buses being operated from the Delhi airports to Punjab, the Chief Minister said his government was working to address the issue but the Delhi government also had to be on board with any decision.
Referring to complaints of continued illegal practices in sand mining, Capt. Amarinder said he had asked the Water Resources Minister to thoroughly review and make this system fully transparent. He said his government remained committed to transparency in governance and to this end would soon bring in the new Lokpal Bill (covering all government functionaries including the Chief Minister), along with the Punjab Anti Red Tape legislation and a Land Leasing & Tenancy Act.
The Chief Minister said the back of the drug mafia had already been broken by his government, which could not have done more in this limited period. Narco terrorists were using new ways to push drugs into the State using drones and new routes. “But we are prepared to deal with them,” he said pointing out that besides the Pakistan border, the sea route from the Gujarat port was being used by drug smugglers, along with Nepal, Burma, Uri (Kashmir), Chamba (Himachal Pradesh) and even Delhi.
He declared that the closure of the Kartarpur corridor was only a temporary measure in view of the COVID-19 outbreak. The Chief Minister said he would definitely be contesting the next Assembly elections.
