Chandigarh, April 1: Haryana Chief Minister Mr Manohar Lal today announced that doctors, nurses, paramedics and other staff working in private hospitals in the state shall also be extended the benefit of enhanced exgratia compensation available for those working in government sector. Besides, he also announced to extend the date for repayment of crop loans by farmers from April 15 to June 30, 2020.
Mr Manohar Lal made these announcements while addressing the people of the State on live television here today.
The Chief Minister said that now the doctors, nurses, paramedics and other staff working in private hospitals would also get the benefit of ex gratia of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh , Rs 20 lakh and Rs 10 lakh respectively in case they were not covered under the newly introduced insurance cover of Rupees 50 lakh of Government of India . Earlier on 23 rd March, the Chief Minister had announced substantial increases in ex gratia amounts for doctors, nurses, paramedics, whether regular, adhoc, outsourced or contractual, working in Covid testing labs, ambulances carrying corona positive patients or isolation wards in government hospitals of the State.
He exhorted the private hospitals not to refuse medical care to corona affected patients.
He said that now the farmers in the State would be able to repay the crop loan by June 30, 2020 instead of April 15, 2020. With this, they would also get the benefit of interest subvention of this period also.
Mr Manohar Lal said that though Haryana would be benefited from the special relief package of Rs 1.70 lakh crore announced by the Central Government for the poor, farmers and those engaged in the medical profession, the State has also announced relief measures for those who are not covered under Central Government package. He said that beneficiaries of Mukhyamantri Parivar Samridhi Yojana has already started getting the financial assistance of Rs 4000. Similarly, amount of Rs 1000 per week has been transferred into the bank accounts of 3.50 lakh construction workers. In all, Rs 250 crore has so far been transferred to the beneficiaries. He said that a budget provision of Rs 1500 crore has been made for this month which is to be spent as financial assistance to the beneficiaries.
He said that the an amount of Rs 24crore has so far been received in the Corona Relief Fund (CRF) set up by the State Government to fight against the Corona pandemic. He said that the State Government has also made an appeal to the government employees to generously contribute a portion of their basic salaries in this Fund. The employees could make their contribution through a portal started for this purpose. He said that so far, 46,000 employees have filled up forms on this portal for a contribution of more than Rs 24 crore. He said that though the last date of giving consent on the portal is April 2,2020, large number of employees has demanded that the date should be further extended as there are large number of employees of Boards, Corporations and Universities who have also expressed their willingness to contribute in this fund.
While referring to the incident of Nizamuddin area in National Capital, the Chief Minister said we got inputs from Police and Intelligence Bureau (IB) that some Corona positive people have visited Haryana after attending a congregation in Nizamuddin in the month of March, 2020. Acting swiftly on it, more than 500 Nizamuddin returnees have been quarantined in the State for a minimum period of 14 days. During this period, they would not be allowed to move to any hotel, mosque or their homes, he added. He said that the decision has been taken to prevent any possibility of spreading of Corona virus.
He said that at present about 13,000 people in the State have been kept under supervision and 323 people have been hospitalized. He said that 694 samples have been taken who have come in the contact of Corona positive patients and out of which 543 reports have been found negative. He said that at present the number of positive cases in the State is 16 as out of the total 29 such cases, 13 patients have been discharged from the hospitals.
The Chief Minister said that countries like America, Spain, Italy etc have been largely affected from the COVID-19 because they did not take enough primary preventive measures. Contrary to this, we have exercised utmost restraint and as a result of these things here are well under-control. He urged the people to remain cautious and maintain social distancing and said this way we would be able to overcome this problem very soon.
He said that the people should constructively utilize the time during the 21 days lockdown by staying at their homes. He said that people should spend maximum time with their elders and also pursue hobbies like reading books, storytelling, cooking etc.
Recalling one of his experiences, the Chief Minister said that in 1980, he got an opportunity to visit Tamil Nadu where he spent 20 days. During this period, he learnt Tamil Language and today large numbers of Tamils are his friends.
The Chief Minister said during the lockdown, he is exercising daily for 1.30 hours instead of 45 minutes earlier. Apart from this, he is reading books for an hour. Also, he spent at least one hour on computer to further enhance his knowledge on various important subjects for which he did not get time earlier.