Amid apprehensions of shortage of oxygen supplies with rising cases of Covid-19, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday urged the Prime Minister to take urgent steps to ensure adequate medical oxygen supplies from other states. The CM also sought the expeditious release of Rs 200 crore that the state government had requested as the next tranche of central aid for Covid-19 management.
With experts suggesting possible aggravation of Covid conditions due to stubble burning, the Chief Minister also reiterated his demand for financial aid by the Centre to farmers for defraying the cost on the management of paddy straw. Though the state government is launching an aggressive media campaign to educate farmers and people in general, giving the linkage with Covid, the Government of India needed to step in with the Rs 100/quintal compensation the state has been seeking for the farmers to manage the paddy straw. During a virtual meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister further urged him to direct the Chief Controllers of Explosives, Nagpur, to clear the license request for the establishment of a liquid medical oxygen plant at Government Medical College, Patiala, by HLL India Limited, under the PM Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY).
The VC meet was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, besides chief ministers of six other states. These seven states (namely Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Punjab), currently contributed 62% to the total cases in the country. The Prime Minister, while promising to look into the Chief Minister’s requests, suggested that the state government should strengthen its Covid awareness efforts by involving the civil society even more aggressively and making announcements from Gurdwaras and other religious places. He expressed the confidence that Punjab would be able to reduce the positivity rate to less than 5% and bring down the Covid Fatality Rate (CFR).