No ambulance for covid positive senior citizen!

A lot of hue and cry was raised in the city after Gurdaspur health officials refused the facility of an ambulance to an infected senior citizen Dilbagh Singh Lally Cheema, who also happens to be the brother of Gulzar Singh Cheema, a former health minister of British Columbia province of Canada. The reasons cited were that “all ambulances of the district are doing duty at the CM’s function in Dera Baba Nanak on the occasion of the conclusion ceremony of the 551st birth anniversary festivities of Guru Nanak Dev.” Residents questioned the decision. Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ishfaq, however, was at variance with what health officials were proclaiming. He confirmed that at least 20 ambulances were available in the district that day. The DC was clearly unhappy. The fact is that to date no accountability has been fixed. The Civil Surgeon was entrusted with the probe. Later, the inquiry was handed over to a three-member committee. That was a sure way of brushing things under the carpet because reports of such committees are never conclusive. Moreover, how can the committee take a decision against one of its own officials? It was an SMO-rank official, who, in the first place, had decided that an “ambulance was unavailable.” Now, how can the committee, comprising officials of the health department itself, recommend action against their own SMO? “If this can happen to a person of the stature of Cheema how can the poor and needy expect justice,” commented a doctor. He had indeed hit the nail on the head. Morale of the story: You can get away with murder if you enjoy political patronage. In this case, everybody knows the SMO is being shielded by the husband of a leading Congress politician. This only goes on to prove that in the corridors of the Gurdaspur health department injustice prevails over justice. According to latest reports the committee, as expected, has exonerated the SMO. However, the last word has yet to be heard with residents demanding a reinquiry.

fiery speeches at

dera baba nanak

Almost all leaders who took to the mic during the 551st birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev held in Dera Baba Nanak on November 30 weaned away from the set trajectory and started delivering fiery speeches. Obviously, these were related to the farmers’ agitation. Cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who was the stage secretary by virtue of being the local MLA, played peacemaker and tried to smother ruffled feathers. He was successful but only to a certain extent as the political class that day was too angry to be calmed down. Even CM Capt Amarinder Singh stressed more on the protests than on the teachings. Taking a cue, PPCC Chief Sunil Jakhar, too, delivered a passionate extempore. “Agriculture is the greatest and fundamentally most important of our industries. The cities are branches of the tree of national life, the roots of which go deeply into the land. We all flourish or decline with the farmer. We should understand that farming is not a battle against nature but a partnership with it. Agriculture has become essential to life; the forest, the lake, and the ocean cannot sustain the increasing family of man. Population declines with a declining cultivation and nations have ceased to be with the extinction of agriculture,” he thundered.

Compensation for dead protesting farmers

The ongoing farmers’ agitation is finding support from different quarters. Batala-based physician Dr Satnam Singh Nijjar, who has set up the Uttam Singh Nijjar foundation in the name of his father to help ‘Children of a lesser God’, as he refers to the poor and needy, and has decided to pay Rs50,000 to each of the four agriculturists’ family who have lost their lives in the protests. He has made public a phone number (99151 44226) and has made an appeal to contact him if anybody needs funds. “For long we have neglected the truth that a good farmer is a craftsman of the highest order, a kind of artist. I have grown up with the adage that only three things can kill a farmer — lightning, being rolling over by a tractor and old age. However, the protests have added another reason for farmers’ demise. We should always be ready to extend a helping hand to the hand that feeds us,” he averred.