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CM should take charge of HP’s Covid battle: Cong
Amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Himachal Pradesh, the opposition Congress on Friday demanded that chief minister Jai Ram Thakur take charge of the health department and take proactive steps to check the spread of coronavirus
Amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Himachal Pradesh, the opposition Congress on Friday demanded that chief minister Jai Ram Thakur take charge of the health department and take proactive steps to check the spread of coronavirus.
“The health sector should get priority and Jai Ram Thakur needs to take control of the health department,” former Jubbal-Kotkhai legislator and chief parliamentary secretary Rohit Thakur said.
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On the first day of the 10-day curfew in the state that has been seeing 2,500 new Covid cases daily over the past week, the Congress leader said that the option of limited lockdown should be open in public interest. “Life and livelihood are both important. If there is a total lockdown, the government should give at least a 48-hour notice to people to prepare,” he said.
He sought better management of health institutions and added that of the 15,306 posts of doctor and paramedical staff in the state, 5,984 posts were vacant. “These vacancies should be filled at the earliest. The AIIMS at Bilaspur, which is under construction for six years, should be made functional as soon as possible,” Rohit Thakur said.
He said to prevent the situation from spiralling out of control as it happened in Delhi and other cities, oxygen plants should be made functional in all medical colleges and major hospitals.
He urged the state government to provide help to the agriculture, horticulture and tourism sectors, which are the mainstays of Himachal Pradesh’s economy
Vinay Kumar, the Congress MLA from Renuka and former chief parliamentary secretary, said the testing needs to be stepped up and community health centres should be equipped for it. He cited the shortage of oximeters and thermometers in the rural areas of his constituency. “Medicine supplies are also inadequate,” he said.
