JALANDHAR: Notwithstanding the claims of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), AAP, and BJP, the civic election results have confirmed a vacuum in Punjab’s opposition space.
Even as the Akalis emerge the “biggest” opposition party in these elections, they remain a distant second in the municipal corporations and committees, where the Congress took the lion’s share of seats.
The only solace for the SAD is that other two opposition players the Aam Aadmi Party and ally-turned-opponent BJP have performed even worse. It was AAP mainly that damaged the SAD in the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 assembly polls. The SAD failed to keep its flock together even in the 2019 parliamentary fight and has since not recovered the ground.
Punjab cabinet minister Balbir Singh Sidhu s brother Amarjeet Singh Sidhu won from ward number 10 of the Mohali civic body.
CHANDIGARH: The ruling Congress in Punjab won the Mohali municipal corporation polls on Thursday by registering victory in 37 of the 50 wards.
After the final counting of votes, the Congress won 37 wards, while independents bagged the remaining 13, officials said.
With this, the ruling party registered victory in seven municipal corporations and emerged as the leading party in the Moga municipal corporation, where no party got a clear majority.
Punjab minister Balbir Singh Sidhu s brother Amarjeet Singh Sidhu won from ward number 10 of the Mohali municipal corporation.
Chandigarh: To offer medical benefits to high-risk groups, the Punjab government established 59 hepatitis treatment centres between 2017 and 2020, said Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu.
He added that the Punjab model was adopted across the country as the Government of India developed a National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme (NVHCP) to treat such patients.
Sidhu informed that Punjab was the first state to initiate free treatment of Hepatitis C in the country. Till date, 1.83 lakh persons have been screened for Hepatitis C and 91,403 patients have been provided free treatment. All the 59 treatment centres are actively functional at 22 district hospitals, 3 GMCs, 13 ART centers, 11 OST sites, 9 central prisons and 1 SDH.