Dilli Chalo: Punjab to bear treatment cost for injured farmers, says minister Balbir Singh

Balbir Singh criticised the Haryana government over the “unconstitutional and illegal” police action on protesting farmers. He said the government had no right to stop the farmers who were peacefully heading to Delhi. “The national highway is the property of the nation and farmers were just to pass from Haryana’s jurisdiction to reach Delhi,” he said.

The minister also urged the BJP-led Haryana government to let the farmers reach the national capital to raise their demands peacefully.

He visited Dr BR Ambedkar State Institute for Medical Sciences (AIMS) in Mohali, CHC Banur, Civil Hospital in Rajpura and Rajindra Hospital in Patiala.

Balbir Singh said that keeping in view the safety of protesting farmers, all hospitals near the Haryana border had been put on high alert and that emergency services were being provided round the clock. He said there was no shortage of doctors and that doctors had been asked to stay put at the hospitals.

The deployment of ambulances has been intensified along the border, the minister said, adding that local health authorities should keep 14 ambulances on standby with requisite staff and medicines.

According to the minister, at least 40 injured people were admitted to the Civil Hospital in Rajpura, which is the nearest to the Shambhu border. Two of them sustained serious head injuries.

During his visit to AIMS in Mohali, the minister directed the officials to strengthen the emergency services so that no one has to be referred to Chandigarh’s PGIMER or Government Medical College-32 for further care.