Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Friday said the COVID-19 crises has created an existential crises for poor who are facing penury and deprivation as economic activity has come to a grinding halt due to the anew lockdown in place, saying the administration has failed to lessen the sufferings of people.
Party’s Member of Parliament from Anantnag Hasnain Masoodi said the government’s response to the aftermath of previous lockdown has been a spectacular failure and it was again using the same failed strategy to cope up with the crises which has morphed into a dire one than what it was before.
“The spike in the cases of new infections and mortality rate raises some straight questions. What went wrong in the previous lockdowns which were dubbed as “world’s stringent.” Was it too early to lift? Why didn’t the administration procure necessary life saving equipment since the first lock down? The government was in knowhow of the situation prevailing around the world and the data from the ground was also known to it, then why was it not able to anticipate the spike in infections, given the fact that world health organization and other national agencies had hinted towards such a large scale community level infection. We see no makeshift hospitals in place to relieve the main hospitals from mounting rush of patients,” he said adding, ” J & K administration running the show has failed to assuage the sudden spike of COVID19 cases. Regrettably the burrowed lockdown strategy was put in place in haste without adapting it to the ground realities in Jammu and Kashmir.”
“As has been reported, the impact of previous lockdowns has been exceedingly disruptive on the economy of J&K, especially Kashmir. Now that we are already lurching through yet another one, what is it that the government is doing to lessen the suffering of masses,” Masoodi asked.
“We have been only seeing government giving out a small amount of ration to people to withstand the crises. Nothing substantial was done to alleviate the suffering of hoteliers, agriculturalists, traders, craftsmen and people associated with transport sector. Unfortunately it even closed the employment avenues for people in mining, dredging sector. The daily wagers, contractual, need based employees and Rehbar- e-Khel employees continue to hanker for the redressal of their due rights, including timely disbursement of their wages,” he said.

KR Desk