India News | SAD Wants All-party Meeting over Covid Situation in Punjab

Chandigarh, May 12 (PTI) The SAD on Wednesday urged Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to call an all-party meeting to discuss the "precarious" Covid-19 situation in the state, amid a spiralling death count.

The SAD said in a statement that the decision to request an all-party conference was taken at a meeting presided over by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal here on Wednesday.

Senior party leaders said the Congress-led government should try to take everyone along in the fight against Covid-19 and that an all-party meeting was necessary to ensure all parties worked in synergy and assist the government in its efforts to provide necessary aid to the people.

Punjab had on Tuesday registered a record 217 Covid-19 deaths, pushing the toll to 10,918, while 8,668 new cases took the infection tally to 4,59,268. The number of active cases as on Tuesday was 76,856.

The Shiromani Akali Dal chief also reviewed the humanitarian aid being provided by his party.

He said efforts would be made to reach out to the people in all constituencies over the next few days.

The meeting also took note of "suffering" of the people in the state and stressed the need to give relief to all sections of society.

It said the most affected sections include taxi operators, rickshaw-pullers, small shopkeepers and labourers, and asked the government to provide financial relief to them.

It also asked the government to provide relief to the middle class by deferring bank loans and waiving off instalments for six months. It also asked the government to address the grievances of the trading community at the earliest.

Speaking about the alleged black marketing of medicines used in treating Covid patients, Badal claimed it was unfortunate that some private hospitals were charging lakhs of rupees from patients and the government was "not doing anything" to regulate them.

He said the government should lower the fixed amount chargeable by private hospitals, besides taking strict action against black marketeers to ensure lifesaving drugs are available to Covid patients at market price.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)