CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday announced lifting of restrictions on the number of passengers in buses in view of operators refusing to ply buses with reduced occupancy due to rising fuel prices.
Wearing face masks will be mandatory for all those travelling in buses, he said.
Singh made the announcement during a Facebook Live session of 'AskCaptain', according to a government release issued here.
The chief minister said he had learnt that operators were refusing to ply buses with reduced occupancy due to the financial losses it entails, especially in the current situation when the prices of petrol and diesel are going up on a daily basis.
This was causing problems to commuters, he said.
He stressed that people will have to mandatorily wear face masks, which can reduce the spread of COVID-19 by 70 per cent.
The state government had earlier allowed buses to ply with 50 per cent occupancy to ensure social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the issue of petrol and diesel price hike, Singh said the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has already passed a resolution on the issue and he hoped the central government would roll back the increase.
The CWC had on Tuesday passed a resolution expressing shock and concern over the repeated and "unjust" increase in petrol and diesel prices as also excise duty over the last three months of the lockdown.
While diesel rates were hiked for the 21st straight day on Saturday, petrol prices have been increased on 20 occasions in three weeks.
On Saturday, the price of petrol was hiked by 25 paise per litre and diesel by 21 paise per litre, taking the cumulative increase in rates in three weeks to Rs 9.12 and Rs 11.01, respectively.
Singh also announced extension of the deadline for applying for minibus permits till July 15.
The last date for submitting the applications was June 30.
Applications have been invited by the state government for permits covering more than 1,400 rural routes.
This step is aimed at breaking the monopoly of the existing bus operators, while also providing employment opportunity for jobless youths.
Singh, during the budget session of the Legislative Assembly, had announced the issuance of 5,000 minibus permits, and the transport department had accordingly issued public notices inviting applications for grant of such permits.
The process was initiated in early March 2020 through a public drive.
Seven more people died of coronavirus in Punjab on Saturday, raising the toll to 128, while 100 new cases pushed the state's infection count to 5,056.
Three deaths were reported in Sangrur, two in Amritsar and one each in Jalandhar and Bathinda, as per the medical bulletin issued by the government.
One fatality earlier reported in Fatehgarh Sahib has now been removed from the death toll figure as the deceased belonged to Uttarakhand, it stated.
There was no let up in the rising number of new coronavirus cases in the state, with 100 more people testing positive for the infection on Saturday.
Among the fresh cases, 19 each were reported in Amritsar and Sangrur, 17 in Jalandhar, 13 in Ludhiana, eight in Mohali, five in Hoshiarpur, four each in Bathinda and Barnala, two each in Ferozepur, Kapurthala and Moga and one each in Rupnagar, Muktsar, SBS Nagar, Gurdaspur and Patiala, as per the bulletin.
Of them, six were foreign returnees while eight had travel history to other states.
As many as 119 coronavirus patients were discharged from various hospitals on Saturday after they recovered from the infection.
A total of 3,320 people have been cured of the infection so far, according to the bulletin.
There are 1,608 active cases in the state as of now, it stated.
Amritsar continued to top the COVID-19 tally in the state with 871 coronavirus cases.
It is followed by 742 in Ludhiana, 686 in Jalandhar, 363 in Sangrur, 275 in Patiala, 242 in Mohali , 208 in Gurdaspur, 205 in Pathankot, 187 in Tarn Taran, 171 in Hoshiarpur, 128 in SBS Nagar, 126 in Muktsar, 107 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 102 in Rupnagar, 101 in Faridkot, 94 in Moga, 90 each in Fazilka and Ferozepur, 89 in Bathinda, 85 in Kapurthala, 50 in Barnala and 44 in Mansa, as per the bulletin.
Seven patients are critical and are on ventilator support while 22 are on oxygen support, it stated.
A total of 2,84,431 samples have been taken for testing so far, as per the bulletin.