3 ministers absent in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Speaker reminds them of Question Hour’s sanctity, says depute someone

Sandhwan asked parliamentary affairs minister Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar to ensure that if the ministers are not able to be present in the house due to some unavoidable reason they should ensure that some other minister is able to answer their questions.

“They should authorise some other minister to answer questions on their behalf so that the sanctity of the Question Hour can be maintained,” the Speaker said. Dr Nijjar said the ministers will be instructed to do so in the future. The maximum questions that were missed due to a minister’s absence pertained to the departments held by Harjot Singh Bains. These included questions asked by AAP MLAs Dinesh Chadha, Labh Singh Ugoke and Kunwar Vijay Pratap.

Over Rs 6 crore recovered from post graduate doctors

Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh informed the house that doctors who complete their post graduation from government medical colleges have to fill a bond in which they have to serve in government hospitals for two years or pay Rs 15 lakh. “The previous governments failed to ensure that these doctors did their service in government hospitals in the state and they failed to realise the amount due from them too. This is criminal negligence. We have recovered Rs 6.47 crore from 57 doctors who did not serve the government and we will recover more from others too,” said Dr Balbir Singh.

To a question by Ropar MLA Dinesh Chadha, the health minister also gave these same figures and added that every year 380 students pass PG courses from government medical colleges. He said since 2020, services in government hospitals are being taken from the students passing post graduate courses and 701 students have done their government service in hospitals since 2020.

AAP MLA says no work being done on water drainage across state

While complaining about lack of water drainage in her constituency, AAP MLA from Jagraon Sarvjit Kaur Manuke complained that storm water sewers were not being cleaned throughout the state and this will again cause problems in the ensuing rainy season. The MLA demanded time bound solution of the problem which she had highlighted for areas in her constituency. Nijjar said the water supply and sewerage board had been instructed to provide technical solution to the problem and funds for the same will be arranged in the next financial year as per requirement.

Mohali airport road to get roundabouts to provide smooth access

Responding to a question by Mohali MLA Kulwant Singh on 12 traffic lights on a 14 km stretch of road linking the national highway in Kharar to the Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Housing and Urban Development Minister, Aman Arora, said that three roundabouts are being constructed at present as a solution to this problem and more will also be constructed in the months ahead. “In the first phase, on the basis of traffic congestions, traffic light points on sector junction 67/68-79/80, sector junction 68/69-78/79 and sector junction 69/70-77/78 will be converted into roundabouts after obtaining technical feasibility report,” said Arora. Eight more roundabouts will be added in the second phase.