National Conference on Wednesday impressed upon the administration to pitch in to help people celebrate Eid-ul-Azha safely, while urging people to adhere strictly to COVID19 guidelines.
In a statement, the party Additional Secretary Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, while underscoring the need for ramping up the efforts to ensure all facilities to people on Eid said administration should have held threadbare discussions with the religious leaders about making the forthcoming festival more safe and secure.
“It is the need of the hour, especially on the eve of Eid to have all religious scholars, and imams on board. There is no vigil over profiteering and black marketing. There is no price stability; rates of basic commodities vary from place to place. It was the prime duty of administration to keep a strict vigil on any unscrupulous profiteering by having flying squads on ground to check the menace,” Kamal said.
He said with skyrocketing prices, it was difficult for not just poor and deprived, but middle class to celebrate Eid.
“People are already cash strapped due to the situation that has been prevailing here since august last year. There is no way a struggling middle class, poor and deprived sections can afford to buy merchandise at such exorbitant prices. It is the duty of the government to ensure that people are not charged exorbitantly,” he said.
Kamal said the authorities should ensure proper fumigation of roads, market places and by lanes. “Ideally the municipal bodies across J&K should have sprung into action and started the drive. Unfortunately it is just three day to Eid, and nothing of that sort has been done to make movement of people safer. Police, and other ground staffers should have been deputed to publicize COVID19 related SOPs. Media, be it print and broadcast too should have been employed to aware the masses about required Eid related SOPs. Administration seems to have taken a back seat and there is no presence of flying squads on ground and no policing,” Kamal said.
He said there are areas where ration distribution has not been done until now, whereas in some areas it has been left mid way. “This reveals the utter failure of the government. It would have been better if the administration would have come up with government owned stalls to sell commodities to BPL families on subsidized rates,” he said.
Kamal urged people to come to the rescue of people in their neighborhoods. Urging people to observe the day with austerity, he said the government was supposed to come to the rescue of transporters, hawkers and laborers by ensuring direct cash transfer to them in view of the Eid observance.
“The social scheme pension too should have been released earlier. The administration is busy on twitter and absent on ground. The big shots in the government are confined to cozy rooms. There is no redressal of people’s woes,” he said.