Apni Party President AltafBukhari Wednesday demanded an immediate opening of Mughal Road for the general public to reduce their sufferings in the time of COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement issued here, Bukhari said that after the recent snow clearance just in line with that of Kashmir-Ladakh road, the Mughal Road must be also opened for the people, keeping in view the second wave of COVID-19 situation across J&K.
“The people of PirPanjal region lack tertiary care health facilities due to which they travel to Kashmir for getting their sick admitted into the local hospitals. Allowing only influential people to travel on Mughal Road is sheer discrimination with the general public,” he said.
Bukhari said that the Mughal Road acts as an important land connectivity between Kashmir and PirPanjal region in view of the dilapidated condition of Srinagar-Jammu highway and it should be thrown open to the people without any disparity.
He said it is outrageous that those who have access to the power corridors were being allowed to travel on this road while the general public, especially the tribal community, are deprived of their basic rights.
“People from Kashmir as well as from PirPanjal region want to travel in a hassle-free manner using this alternative connectivity but instead of facilitating their travel they are being restricted by the administration which is totally unjustified,” Bukhari said.
He also expressed serious concern over an exponential spike in COVID-19 fatalities and positive cases emerging in J&K on a daily basis.
Bukhari expressed anguish over the lackadaisical approach assumed by the administration wherein many families of the COVID-19 patients were complaining about the scarcity of life saving drugs in the hospitals.
He appealed the Lt Governor ManojSinha to declare this pandemic as a disaster and immediately make arrangements to procure live-saving drugs along with ventilators and concentrated medical oxygen so that the people do not have to lose their loved ones due to infrastructural deficiencies.
Bukhari demanded that the government must ensure that an ample supply of vaccine darts was maintained in J&K and people were not allowed to suffer.