Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) chief G A Mir on Monday criticised the Union Territory administration over its response to the prevailing COVID-19 situation and demanded necessary steps to restore confidence of people in the health system.
He also took a dig at the administration for launching the third phase of back-to-village (B2V) programme at the time of COVID-19 crisis and claimed that the exercise was meant to benefit the members of the ruling party.
“The UT and the central government failed to create the required facilities during six months of ongoing COVID-19 situation to deal with the worsening situation (following surge in positive cases over the past one month),” Mir said addressing a meeting of district presidents of Jammu province at the party headquarters here.
The meeting was convened to discuss the problems being faced by people, including the worsening COVID-19 situation and the alleged failure of the government to provide required medical facilities to patients, a party release said.
Mir said the reported shortage of oxygen and non-functional ventilators in Jammu hospitals have caused a panic situation and reflect mismanagement and mishandling on the part of the administration.
“There is a need for immediate necessary steps on war-footing to augment the facilities, besides a detailed statement of facts about the crises to assure the people about the facilities to deal with the emerging scenario,” he said.
The Congress leader said it is the duty of the government to take extra measures in view of the surge in COVID-19 positive cases over the past one month.
Referring to the ongoing third phase of the B2V programme launched by the administration to reach out to the people at their doorsteps to mitigate their problems, he said the programme at this juncture had “disturbed” the entire machinery and the public.
“It (the exercise) is to accommodate the ruling party workers, especially in those Panchayats where no elections could be held and whose number is over 13,000 seats,” he said and claimed that not a single work was done in any Panchayat during the previous B2V programmes.
Mir also lashed out at the government for not restoring the 4G mobile Internet services and causing hardships to the people, especially students.
He asked the government not to play with the career and lives of children and ensure early restoration of the 4G mobile Internet services.
Mir also accused the government of paying no heed to the safety of the people and said they are being kept in queues to get domicile certificates, which could have avoided had the government conceded the genuine request of the permanent resident certificate (PRC) holders to treat the same as domicile.
The JKPCC chief directed the district presidents to gear up the entire cadre of the party at the grassroots level and raise the issues of public concern in a befitting manner.
