‘Issue could have been handled in a better manner’: Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann on ‘dirty mattress’ row

Hours after the Vice-Chancellor (V-C) of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Dr Raj Bahadur, resigned for being asked by Punjab health minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra to lie down on a grimy mattress, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the “issue could have been handled in a better way”.

Mann, while speaking to the media after participating at a conclave on drugs at the Punjab Raj Bhawan, said, “Dr Raj Bahadur has been my good friend ever since my father suffered a spinal injury. Earlier, he was the Principal of the General Hospital, Sector 32, and the director of PGIMER. He is a good doctor. Such frictions do happen at workplaces but the issue could have been handled in a better way.”

Also Read | Punjab V-C row: I was humiliated, says Dr Raj Bahadur

Welcoming the Centre’s offer to set up a forensic lab, Mann said, “We will give them land to set up the forensic lab in Amritsar. It is a border area.”

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He said he had also raised the issue of blurring the lines between gangs, drug couriers and terrorists.

“For instance, if a drug courier is carrying a kilogram of heroin, he is also asked to carry two guns. I raised this in the meeting and called upon all political parties to fight this together rising above party lines. We are recovering drugs coming from Dehradun, Saharanpur, Rajasthan and Gujarat. We should not get into the credit war. We should all fight this together to save the youths of Punjab from falling prey.”