Ajit Pawar asks local admin to act against private hospitals for carelessness in Covid treatment

Pawar held a review meeting with senior bureaucrats in the district about Covid-19 control campaign. Those attending the meeting included Pune Mayor Murlidhar Mohol, Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar, Registration Commissioner S Chokkalingam, Pune Police Commissioner K Venkatesham, Pune Collector Naval Kishore Ram, Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissioner Sandip Vishnoi, Pune Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar, Sugar Commissioner Saurabh Rao among others.

He told the officers that the battle ahead of the state was two-fold. “On one hand we have to contain the spread of the coronavirus, and reboot the economy by restoring the normal trade on the other. The first step in this battle is to stop the spread of the virus by enforcing strict discipline among residents,” said Pawar.

He added that the state government was taking efforts to boost economic activities and normalise trade and business in the state, which was important for making jobs available. “The government is taking effort to help industries fly again. Local youths should be given preference while providing employment. The government will provide training to local youths under skill development programmes,” said Pawar.

The deputy chief minister said a decision regarding schools will soon be taken, keeping in view that children don’t suffer academic loss and at the same time, there is no health risk.

“A standard operating procedure will have to be chalked out for this purpose. We will take a decision on schools soon,” said Pawar.

Divisional Commissioner Mhaisekar said the PMC has developed a dashboard that provides information about the availability of medical beds at Covid-19 hospitals. “We have given instructions to all hospitals concerned that they should update the availability of beds on the dashboard regularly. This information will also be provided to ambulance operators so that they know where to take a patient,” said Mhaisekar.

Deputy CM visits cyclone-hit villages

Deputy CM Ajit Pawar also visited villages in Maval, Junnar and Khed tehsil, which were badly affected by Cyclone Nisarga earlier this week. He promised villagers who suffered damages to houses and to crop that speedy compensation will be provided to them.

He visited Bhoyre and Pavalewadi in Maval; Navlakh Umbare, Karanj Vihire, Shive, Vahagaon and Dhamane in Khed tehsil; and Savargaon, Pandhre, Yenere and Dhagadwadi in Junnar tehsil.

As many as 371 villages in Pune district have been ravaged by the cyclone that hit the district, along with other coastal districts in Konkan division, on June 3. Standing crop on 7,874 hactare has been affected, for which compensation will be provided to 28,496 cultivators. Besides, polyhouses and shed nets of about 371 farmers were damaged due to strong winds.

Pawar also handed over cheques of Rs 4 lakh each as financial aid to the family of those who lost their lives in accidents caused by the cyclone. A total of four persons, including two in a family, died in three different incidents.