Jammu Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) President Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari onSaturday demanded immediate evacuation of J&K residents including studentsand labourers who are stranded away from their homes within and outsidecountry.
In a statement issued here, Bukhari urged the government of India totake urgent measures in order to ensure availability of food, shelter andmedicines to such stranded J&K residents including students and thelabourers who are stuck in different parts of the country amid COVID-19lockdown.
“The unprecedented lockdown necessitated by COVID-19 outbreak across thecountry has rendered thousands of J&K residents, including students andlaborers, stranded away from their respective homes. I appeal the uniongovernment to take concrete measures for their safe evacuation and till then,make all arrangements through the receptive state governments for their shelterand sustenance,” Bukhari demanded.
He said hundreds of students, traders especially dealing withhandicrafts and labourers from J&K are stranded in different parts of thecountry including Goa, Kolkata, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Mumbai, Punjab,Uttrakhand and Hyderabad who have sent distress calls to their families. “I amtold that most of these stranded students and labourers are facing immensedifficulties including running short of money due to government imposed countrywide lockdown to prevent spread of the deadly Coronavirus. The centralgovernment must take concrete measures to address their woes,” Bukhariappealed.
Bukhari said that some students, labourers and traders have returnedtheir homes after hectic efforts but are not being allowed to move towardsKashmir at Lakhanpur toll post. “The J&K government should facilitate theirsafe return and screening so that they remain with their families in these hardtimes. Till then they should be provided with food and shelter on prioritybasis,” he pleaded.
The JKAP president remarked that if the evacuation of J&K strandedstudents, traders and labourers from rest of the country and outside India isnot possible at the moment due to the unprecedented situation, the bare minimumgovernment of India could do is to reach out to them with the help ofrespective state governments and embassies in different parts of the world wherethey are stranded in.
He said that most of the students and labourers who are stuck withindifferent parts of J&K and rest of the country are desperately waiting forsome mode of transportation to reach to their homes. “The J&K governmentshould also ask its administration to prepare a database of those strandedwithin and outside J&K and take up the matter with the respective stategovernments so that food, shelter, medicines and other necessary items could beprovided to them in these pressing circumstances,” the JKAP president observed.
“Similarly, the government of India should reach out to the J&Kstudents and businessmen who are stuck in different countries like UK,Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bahrain, Iran and Qatar and are not in a position to returnto their country in view of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he urged the externalaffairs ministry, government of India.