Former finance minister Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari, senior leader of CPI (M) M Y Tarigami and vice-president of Peoples Democratic Party Abdul Rehman Veeri have urged the Governor to make arrangements for evacuation of thousands of passengers stranded in Jammu and other places due to closure of the Jammu-Srinagar highway.
“I solicit the personal intervention of the Governor Satya Pal Malik Ji to seek help from Indian Air Force to airlift these stranded passengers that include elderly persons, women, children and the students,” Bukhari said in a statement.
Tarigami in a statement that these passengers are stranded at Jammu bus stand without food and shelter. Many stranded families reportedly have alleged that prices of commodities have been hiked as there was no market checking to put rates in order.
The Governor’s administration should provide free ration and accommodation to the stranded passengers and expedite work on the highway especially from Banihal to Ramban stretch which often remains closed due to landslides and shooting stones. “Alternately, the government must immediately make arrangements to airlift the stranded passengers from Jammu to Kashmir,” he added.
Demanding that the stranded passengers in Jammu be airlifted to Srinagar without further delay, PDP vice-president Abdul Rahman Veeri on Sunday said the government cannot turn a blind eye towards the hardships these passengers are facing at present.
Veeri in a statement urged the Governor’s administration to come to the rescue of the stranded passengers at an earliest as according to him among the people who are stranded at the winter capital are aged patients whose saving have got exhausted and they have no means to afford hotel accommodation.
It’s in place to mention here that administration on late Sunday afternoon pressed Globemaster aircrafts of Indian Air Force and airlifted 180 stranded passengers from Jammu.