4 new COVID-19 testing labs to come up in Punjab

Chandigarh, Jun 22 () The Punjab Cabinet on Monday gave its nod to set up four new COVID-19 testing laboratories in the state to scale up capacity to up to 13,000 tests a day.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

The new labs will be set up in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Mohali, to help scale up testing capacity from the current 9,000 a day, in three government medical colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot, to 13,000 tests per day, according to an official release.

The new laboratories would be established at the Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in Ludhiana; the Punjab State Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Mohali; the Northern Regional Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory in Jalandhar; and the Punjab Biotechnology Incubator in Mohali, it said.

The cabinet also gave nod for appointing 131 essential staff needed for these labs, besides clearing the proposal for creating and filling up four posts of assistant professor (microbiology) on adhoc basis in these four testing laboratories.

The release said that all the appointments will be made through outsourcing from the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences in Faridkot.

The 131 staff positions positions would include research scientists (non-medical), research assistants, lab technicians, data entry operators, lab attendants and sweepers.

The Cabinet has also given its nod to re-employment of the medical, ayurvedic and dental faculty after their retirement at 62 years.

The re-employment will be done at the government medical and dental colleges in Patiala and Amritsar as well as the government ayurvedic college in Patiala.

While re-employment will be up to the age of 70 years for medical and ayurvedic teachers, for dental faculty, it will be till the age of 65, ]the release said.

To ensure expeditious disposal of cases related to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and crime against women, the cabinet also gave go ahead to the creation of 35 posts for setting up of new units of DNA, cyber forensic and audio and voice analysis in the Forensic Science Laboratory at Mohali, with an annual outlay of Rs 1.56 crore.

The amended Section 173 of CrPC requires that trials of sexual offences cases should be completed within two months. DNA sampling and testing has also been made mandatory for all cases of sexual offences, said the release.

To ensure effective implementation of these mandates, the cabinet cleared a proposal of the home department to strengthen the DNA unit in the state's forensic lab by increasing the number of units from one to two.

The release said at present, cases of cyber forensic and audio and voice analysis are sent to other scientific laboratories for examination, since there is no facility for their examination in the state forensic lab. CHS VSD ANB ANB