JAMMU: Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu today interacted with Traders and representatives of various associations here at Raj Bhavan.
Farooq Khan, Advisor to Lieutenant Governor; Bipul Pathak, Principal Secretary to Lieutenant Governor; besides Heads of various associations and organizations including CCI; J&K High Court Bar Association Jammu; All J&K Transport Welfare Association, J&K; Chamber of Traders Federation; Kanak Mandi Traders Association; Ware House Traders Association; Private Schools Association (J&K BOSE) ; Sabzi Mandi Narwal; Pharmaceuticals Wholesalers Association and Brick Kiln Owners Association were present during the interaction.
At the outset, the representatives of various associations lauded the efforts of the UT Administration under the Lt Governor for containing the spread of COVID-19 in J&K.
They put forth several demands pertaining to treatment of non-COVID patients; hiring of SRTC Trucks for transportation of essentials from outside the UT by the Traders; supply of ration to daily earners; entry of heavy vehicles during day time; installation of sanitization tunnels in high footfall areas like sabzi mandis, warehouses etc.
They also demanded for allowing operations of the industrial units and assured that the industrialists would own the responsibility of ensuring the sanitization, social distancing and hygiene as per the guidelines.
Opening of stationery shops and preparing a mechanism to provide school books and study materials to facilitate the students; besides preponement of summer vacations and allowing over draft facility to private schools were also demanded.
The Lt Governor was informed that due to the lockdown, around 50,000 labourers working in Brick Kilns across Jammu were left stranded. Request was made to allow the operations of the Brick Kilns units as the stocks of bricks have also reportedly exhausted, they said.
The Lt Governor, while interacting with the representatives of the associations, assured them that all the genuine demands and issues projected by them would be looked into on priority.
He observed that a Committee has already been constituted for resumption of commercial and industrial activity in a controlled manner. The Government of India (GoI) is also issuing guidelines by tomorrow, and steps would be to facilitate the trade and industry accordingly, he added.
The Lt Governor asked them to ensure adherence of social distancing norms and said that it is a responsibility of every individual to play his role in the fight against COVID-19 as 78 % cases are asymptomatic in J&K, which poses a challenging task for the UT Administration alone to combat the pandemic.
