{"id":137417,"date":"2020-09-20T00:57:50","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T19:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=137417"},"modified":"2020-09-20T00:57:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-19T19:27:50","slug":"rs-passes-bill-to-punish-those-attacking-healthcare-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2020\/09\/20\/rs-passes-bill-to-punish-those-attacking-healthcare-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"RS passes bill to punish those attacking healthcare workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>NEW DELHI, Sep 19:<\/strong> The Rajya Sabha on Saturday passed a legislation that provides for upto seven years in jail for those attacking doctors and healthcare workers fighting the Covid-19 outbreak or during any situation akin to the current pandemic.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill, 2020, was introduced by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in the upper house on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The bill was supported by the members across party lines. However, some suggested adding in its purview hospital sanitary staff, ASHAs and &#8216;Corona warriors&#8217; in emergency services, such as police and personnel from other departments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Besides, members also pointed out overcharging by some private hospitals in the name of Covid-19 treatment, turning the crisis into an opportunity for them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill, 2020, will replace an ordinance issued in April by the government.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The government had brought the ordinance on 22 April to amend the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, to make incidents of violence on health workers treating Covid-19 patients a non-bailable offence with provisions of a penalty and a jail term of upto seven years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The bill intends to ensure that during any situation akin to the current pandemic, there is zero tolerance of any form of violence against healthcare personnel and damage to property.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Under the proposed act, the commission or abetment of such violence will be punishable with imprisonment for a term of three months to five years, with a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 2,00,000.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In case of causing grievous hurt, the imprisonment shall be for a term of six months to seven years, with a fine of Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 5,00,000.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On overcharging by private hospitals, Vardhan said the central government has issued guidelines to states regarding charging by private hospitals, laboratories etc. &#8220;We have tried to rationalize these prices,&#8221; he said. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI, Sep 19: The Rajya Sabha on Saturday passed a legislation that provides for upto seven years in jail for those attacking doctors and healthcare workers fighting the Covid-19 outbreak or during any situation akin to the current pandemic. The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill, 2020, was introduced by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-137417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}