Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister, Balbir Singh Sidhu, on Monday, enquired about the health of health worker, Mastan Singh who was attacked during his visit to a religious place in Khanpur village to persuade inmates for getting tested for coronavirus.

Mastan Singh is undergoing treatment at Community Health Centre (CHC) in Dehlon.

Interacting with Singh, Sidhu assured him that strict action would be taken against all culprits who manhandled him while he was on duty. Sidhu was accompanied by Gill MLA Kuldeep Singh Vaid, civil surgeon, Dr. Rajesh Kumar Bagga, besides others.

Condemning the incident, Sidhu said that the health workers of Punjab are working day and night to keep the people safe from this deadly disease. Any attack on a health worker will not be tolerated at all. He directed the Commissioner of Police, Ludhiana to ensure the security of health workers as Ludhiana recorded the higher number of Covid-19 cases. He also directed the police to arrest the accused at the earliest and take strict action as per the law so that no such incident happens in the future.

Sidhu also appealed to the general public that they should respect the efforts being made by the health department’s employees to tide over this crisis.

Citing the delay by residents in disclosing the symptoms/disease as a major reason behind the rising number of positive cases and mortality, Sidhu said that a special campaign is being conducted to trace every suspected symptomatic patient.

Posted at the Malaud CHC, Mastan Singh had visited Prabhu Ka Dera in Khanpur village for screening the residents. When he reached the dera to get the information about the suspected symptomatic patients, Singh was brutally manhandled by the sadhus and some of their associates, and a video of the entire incident was captured.

A case under sections of the IPC and the Epidemic Act 1987 was registered at Dehlon police station.