Chandigarh, Mar 28 (PTI) Punjab Health Minister Vijay Singla on Monday said 16,000 ‘mohalla clinics’ will be set up in a revolutionary step to transform the healthcare system of the state.
He said reforms in health services is the top priority of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for which 16,000 mohalla clinics will be set up to ensure better healthcare to every citizen.
Notably, setting up these clinics was a pre-poll promise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which stormed to power in Punjab by winning 92 of the 117-assembly seats.
Singla was speaking in Patiala after reviewing the health services provided at Government Medical College, Rajindra Hospital’s Sri Guru Nanak Super Specialty hospital, Cath Lab and Government Ayurvedic College, an official statement said. Asking government doctors to refrain from private practice, the minister said they must give maximum time to the state-run hospitals and OPD of indoor patients.
Expressing regret over the performance of previous governments in the medical education and health sector, he said “just as the people of Punjab have brought a revolution by voting AAP to power, the Punjab government has now decided to take the medical sector as a pilot project and will bring a revolution in the healthcare sector”.
Special attention will be given to upgrade the tertiary and secondary care institutions in Patiala, Faridkot and Amritsar, including further improvement of super-specialty centres of these hospitals, he said.
Meanwhile, chairing a review meeting of the transport department in Chandigarh, Transport Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar directed defaulter private bus operators to submit tax at the earliest, failing which it could invite cancellation of permits and their buses.
He later reviewed the functioning of the Bus Tracking System Monitoring and Control Room.
Principal Secretary K Siva Prasad apprised the minister that this system has been installed in 1,354 government buses so far and a control room has been set up at Chandigarh.
From the control room, over-speeding of buses, harsh braking and acceleration, overnight stay of buses, stoppage at any other place rather than designated stops, stay of buses on ‘dhabas’ for more than 25 minutes, route diversion, bypassing cities, missing stops, real time monitoring of arrival and departure of buses from counters, actual travel distance of buses, among others, were being monitored.
Bhullar directed the officials to issue bus permits to unemployed youth of the state on priority and said all process should be completed as per the policy in a transparent manner.
Punjab Rural Development and Panchayats Minster Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal held a maiden meeting here with officials of the department.
According to an official statement, Dhaliwal said the main agenda of the AAP government is to make Punjab corruption-free and provide hassle free services to the people.
He warned officials not to indulge in any sort of malpractices.
Dhaliwal said gram sabha is the strongest pillar of rural development which should be strengthened.
Lal Chand Kataruchak, Forest and Wildlife Protection Minister, also held a separate meeting with senior officers of his department in Mohali and reviewed the functioning of the department.
He said to achieve the goal of increasing forest cover and to make Punjab a greener state, about 1.15 crore saplings would be planted by the forest department during the year 2022-23. Out of which, about 60 lakh saplings will be planted on forest land as per requirement and about 55 lakh saplings will be planted by farmers and people, he said.
A procedure will be formulated to remove illegal occupants from forest lands in the state so that illegal encroachments from forest lands can be removed, he said.
Seema Jain, Additional Chief Secretary (Forests) informed during the meeting that the work of digitisation of forest boundaries of the Forest Department would be started on a war footing so that the incidents of illegal encroachments and mining etc. in the forests could be stopped. On the occasion, the minister launched surveillance drones and directed to use drones and modern techniques to curb deforestation, illegal mining, among others.
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