Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Saturday expressed concern over the increase in cases of COVID-19 infections in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that the government is caught in a quandary on the issue.
While expressing concern over the spike in the COVID-19 infections, Party MPs Muhammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi said that the administration is waiting for the snowballing of the prevailing situation into grave crises, saying the administration has turned its back on the exigencies that have propped up in wake of the increased number of infections in past few weeks. “The administration has thrown caution to winds and is completely clueless on the issues. Had the ruling regime in J&K come up with a well-thought-out strategy to cope up with the prevailing crises, the situation would not have become as dire as it is turning with each passing day. We see how in a well-organized manner various state governments across the country had made ample arrangements in form of creating make-shift hospitals, extra testing facilities to cope up with the viral sprawl. Unfortunately, big shots in the administration in J&K have been living in a denial mode up until now. Regrettably, the administration also failed to scale up the existing infrastructure in hospitals by augmenting existing bed strength and other life-saving equipment by learning from the previous experience,” they said.
The duo stated that the administration has been selling previous lockdowns as a success, the idea behind the lockdown was to flatten the curve of COVID-19 infection, and the administration has failed to achieve that end. It is unfortunate to see J&K administration missing from action on this issue which is steadily moving towards yet another peak. “It is needless to say that the present regime in J&K has failed to follow the “trace, test and treat” norm of the world health organization. It seems that the administration has given in; it is only busy in photo-ops and shoddy PR. The response of the JK administration to COVID-19 crises presents a grimy tale of shortfalls and mistakes. The whataboutery of the civil administration is only adding to the miseries of people,” he said.
The duo asked the government to come up with a comprehensive plan to deal with the emerging situation by taking all stakeholders on board, asking the government to refrain from any spur-of-moment decisions. “The need of the hour calls for coming with a thorough plan with people from education, tourism, health, municipality, religious scholars, transporters and traders on board. We have seen how miserably the administration failed to cope with the situation during previous COVID-19 spur. It is expected that the government will rise from the deep slumber take intelligence and will coordinated decisions to contain the situation without much collateral damage to education, economy and tourism,” they added.
