Pressure Centre for timely supplies to combat Covid: Capt to party MPs

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday urged Congress MPs from the state to pressurise the Centre to augment supplies of oxygen, tankers, vaccines and vital medicines even as some of them suggested to him to consider a “full lockdown” to curb the virus spread in the state

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday urged Congress MPs from the state to pressurise the Centre to augment supplies of oxygen, tankers, vaccines and vital medicines even as some of them suggested to him to consider a “full lockdown” to curb the virus spread in the state.

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh (HT file)

The chief minister, who held a virtual meeting with the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs of the Congress from Punjab on the Covid situation, exhorted them to push the central government to increase the state’s oxygen quota and dispatch additional tankers on priority to enable lifting of the full allocated quota of 195MT on daily basis. “Punjab is being meted out a step-motherly treatment by the Centre in the matter of supplies needed urgently to battle Covid,” he claimed, adding, “BJP-ruled neigbouring Haryana has got a bigger oxygen quota and more tankers than Punjab”. The meeting was attended by all party MPs from the state except Ambika Soni who is unwell. Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar was also present.

Bajwa, others suggest complete lockdown

At the meeting, some MPs stressed the need for more stringent measures, including a total lockdown, to fight the second wave of the pandemic. “The suggestion was to consider it as several leading health experts have suggested a full lockdown to stop Covid spread. We understand the lockdown will mean lots of hardships on smaller shopkeepers, daily wagers, etc, but we cannot allow the virus to get out of control. If it can be controlled without lockdown, then there is nothing like it. We have to save lives first,” Bajwa, who along some other MPs advised the CM to consider this option, said after the meeting.

On Tuesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had also stated that the only way to stop the spread of Covid-19 infection now was a full lockdown. The state has imposed a “soft lockdown” unlike during the first wave when it was among the first states to impose a statewide curfew in March 2020.

The MPs also urged the chief minister to approach the high court for enhancement of its oxygen quota, besides calling a meeting of the cabinet to make oxygen plant mandatory for private hospitals with 25 beds and government hospitals with 50 beds. They also urged the state government to again try and get permission from the central government for import of oxygen from Pakistan and take measures to ensure vaccination of Punjab farmers protesting at Delhi’s borders.

The MPs promised to utilise their MPLAD funds to set up oxygen generation plants in government hospitals. Amarinder said the state was facing issues even on the ventilator front, since there was no BEL engineer to install 108 of the 809 ventilators received from the central government. On the vaccination front also, the MPs expressed concern over the low supplies and repeated delays from the Centre.

The chief minister said the Centre’s apathy towards Punjab was also reflected in the fact that many other states had been given more vials of Tocilizumab. The state had sought 650 vials but was given only 200 in the initial stages, which were distributed to government and private hospitals, he added. Even Remdesivir continued to be in short supply, as delivery of the 50,000 vials allocated to the state was extremely slow, he said. The MPs expressed concern over the chief minister’s disclosure that genome sequence results had not been received for the past one month.