Books and stationery shops opened for five hours here onWednesday as the Jammu and Kashmir administration started allowing controlledbusiness activities in various districts after more than a month-long closuredue to the lockdown aimed at preventing the coronavirus disease, officials said
The shops, dealing in books and stationery items, opened atPakka Danga and other parts of the city around 10 am and continued with theiroperations till 2 pm, facilitating students who have already been promoted tothe next class, the officials said.
On April 7, the administration announced mass promotion forthe students affiliated with the Board of School Education up to Class 9 andClass 11 across Jammu region but the students could not buy their course booksfor the next academic session due to the lockdown.
The nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which hasnow been extended till May 3.
Though the administration and the private schools havestarted online classes to kick-start the academic session for the students, theslow speed of mobile internet, which is running at 2G speed after itsrestoration, has proved a big hurdle for the students who complain of not beingable to download the content at this speed.
The 2G internet facility on mobile phones was restored inJammu and Kashmir on January 25 after remaining suspended since August 5 lastyear following the Centre’s move to abrogate Article 370 provisions andbifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union territories — Ladakh, andJammu and Kashmir.
The opening of the book and stationery shops came as a bigrelief to the students and their parents who were seen collecting the classbooks though maintaining the social distancing norms.
Our delegation met the District Magistrate (Jammu) SushmaChauhan who gave permission for limited operation of our shops with certainrestrictions, President Book Sellers Association Harish Gupta told PTI.
He said the student community has suffered immense loss inview of the closure of all educational institutions in the wake of the lockdownand slow speed of the internet.
At least the students can get their books now, he said anddemanded free transportation of books and other material from outside Unionterritory markets for smooth running of their shops.
Daleep Kumar, a local resident, welcomed the opening ofthese shops and said a large section of the students do not have access to theinternet and were facing hardships to pursue their education.
This is a good decision taken by the administration for thewelfare of the student community. The lockdown forced the schools to go foronline classes but lack of internet or slow speed was playing the spoilsport .It will benefit the students in the coming days, he said.
The authorities in various other districts in the regionincluding Udhampur, Kishtwar and Poonch also allowed limited operation ofisolated shops with a request to the customers to maintain social distancingand use face masks while venturing out of their homes.
On Saturday, the administration had permitted opening ofselect categories of shops in addition to those dealing with essentialcommodities in rural areas and standalone shops in the urban areas with someconditions amidst the ongoing lockdown.
However, very few shops opened as a majority of the peoplepreferred to stay indoors in view of the coronavirus scare.