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Deal with farmers anti-lockdown call strictly: Capt to DGP
Amarinder authorised the deputy commissioners to impose new and harsher restrictions, as needed, within their respective districts, but made it clear that no dilution of the existing curbs would be allowed
Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday directed director general of police Dinkar Gupta to strictly enforce the weekend lockdown and deal stringently with any violation, ahead of farmers’ proposed protest against it.
Chairing a review meeting on Covid situation, Amarinder authorised the deputy commissioners to impose new and harsher restrictions, as needed, within their respective districts, but made it clear that no dilution of the existing curbs would be allowed.
He directed the DGP to strictly enforce the weekend lockdown and deal stringently with any violations in view of the Kisan Sangharsh Morcha’s anti-lockdown agitation on Saturday.
Asserting that the Kisan Morcha, an amalgamation of 32 kisan unions, cannot dictate terms to the state government, Amarinder warned of strict prosecution in case of violation of any restrictions. He said if any shops are opened in violation of the restrictions, the owners will be prosecuted.
Taking serious note of the spike in cases in Malwa region, the CM asked chief secretary Vini Mahajan to examine the possibility of re-employing the volunteers deployed last year and also to get rapid antigen tests done on all residents in the villages. He stressed the need to control the CFR, which stood at 2.1% as of May 6.
Health Secretary Hussan Lal said the positivity rate in the state had gone up to 13.5% on Thursday, when the state reportedly nearly 9,000 cases.
The CM directed the chief secretary to explore utilisation of some component of the state’s World Bank loan for purchase of 10,000 Oxygen concentrators, along with tankers and O2 plants as well as vaccines.
He said besides the TATA Group, which was sending 500 oxygen concentrators, 200 concentrators were being sent by the Tata Memorial Hospital too.
