Chandigarh: Underlining the need for generating resources to deal with the COVID-19 medical emergency on priority, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday ordered expenditure cuts by all government departments to meet urgent expenses needed to deal with the current crisis.

He has asked all the state departments to submit detailed proposals, by April 8, on expenditure cuts to be made over the next few weeks.

“We have to save people, that should be our priority,” said the Chief Minister at the meeting of the Council of Minister, adding that resources have to be made available to Health, Police and other concerned departments directly involved in the current battle, which threatens to be a long one.

With no additional revenues coming in, the only way out was to cut expenditure, he stressed, adding that every department would need to make cuts in order to generate revenue for the critical care services.

Finance Minister Manpreet Badal earlier told the Cabinet that the state would suffer Rs 5000 crore in revenue losses in April, and the figure was expected to go up further in the absence of revenue from GST and petroleum taxes.