MT News Service
Jammu, May 18:
With J&K reeling under an unprecedented COVID-19 wave which has led to impose local lockdowns and curfews, the Centre should announce a fresh stimulus package to provide relief to the poor as the ongoing second wave of coronavirus disrupts their livelihood. This was observed by JKPCC Vice President and former Minister Raman Bhalla after distributing food kits among needy people of Bahu Fort Kacha Talab Ward-47 in Gandhi Nagar constituency. Prominent among those who accompanied Bhalla include Dewan Chand,Latish Sharma,Sahil Shavotra, Atul Sharma, Rajeev beside others.Bhalla said that Union Finance Ministry, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other key departments’ along with stakeholders should announce stimulus package immediately. While a nationwide lockdown does not seem to be in the cards as of now, J&K has imposed a series of restrictions. The restrictions are expected to again hit the economy, which was already at slowest pace in J&K.
As per press statement issued to mercury times, Bhalla asked government to expand its vaccination drive so that the severity and the spread of Covid-19 can be contained. He said the government should control the second wave of the pandemic through its test-track-treat-vaccinate strategy, Covid-19-appropriate behaviour and local-level containment without going in for hard and widespread lockdowns. The most marginalized, including the homeless, poorly paid daily wage labourers are already down to one meal a day. “The area is full of people who have to earn every day and others who are out of work now. There are hawkers of small items or clothes, a large number of domestic workers and construction workers. Most are without work since the restrictions began,” Bhalla said.
Bhalla further said that the welfare measures announced by Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha after the imposition of the current curbs fall short on account of being restricted to certain categories of registered workers and ration card holders, despite the fact that very large numbers of migrants are not PDS beneficiaries. But apart from the portability issues that must be ironed out, what the poor require is rations for non-card holders too, at least amid the current crisis. Every ward in every big city must have food or ration banks,” Bhalla said. The Jammu Municipality should engage with civil society organisations that have worked historically with Jammu’s urban poor to make meaningful interventions to ensure the homeless do not go hungry,” he said.
Though it’s not such a desperate situation yet, if the lockdown-like restrictions are extended, then there will be a real hunger crisis. Not everyone who has a ration card is able to access adequate food either. The second wave of the pandemic has had an adverse impact on people across J&K. The grim reality in J&K and people’s cry for help saw a lot of NGOs and groups coming forward to do their bit to ease the situation. Several countries also extended help by sending in aid, equipment and in some cases, even oxygen cylinders and concentrators, said Bhalla. There is need to bring the diaspora together so that their efforts could yield a significant impact, raise funds and ship essential medical equipment to India.
Bhalla as per mercury times, maintained that it will not be proper to blame people only. The accountability lies with local and J&K authorities, which should have strictly enforced Covid regulations in time. The J&K government did not take decisions to enforce regulations, including lockdown, in time and the results are there for all to see. Presently, only ad hoc and knee-jerk decisions are being taken, like imposing weekend lockdowns in some places, night curfew in some towns, and fining people who move around without masks.
These decisions, taken belatedly, are not yielding the right results, added Bhalla. The situation in J&K has worsened because of negligence on part of both the Union and J&K government. The J&K government could have attacked and enforced regulations in time, and the people, on their part, could have followed the regimen of social distancing, wearing of masks, and frequent washing of hands. The situation worsened in the last one month. It seems that a sense of fatigue set in after people became fed up of wearing masks constantly. People stopped fearing the pandemic as life returned to normal, added Bhalla.
Bhalla further said that the other reason, is because of political instability caused by a BJP government. BJP Politicians in J&K had to face so many problems during the last year and they had little time to spend on the nitty-gritty of tackling a lethal pandemic. The current COVID-19 wave is worrying and people need to take all precautions and follow protocols. Now, the novel coronavirus has returned after changing its form, due to which the situation has become grim. Now, we have to take benefit of our past experience, and soon control the phase-2 of COVID-19, so that its spread can be curtailed. It is good that anti-COVID vaccine is available now, and the vaccination has to be effectively done,” Bhalla said.
What went wrong with the central government’s handling of the epidemic? The government was completely unprepared for the second wave, which started its steep climb about a month back. The central government and its experts believed that the Covid-19 pandemic would be over by February 2021, after which the country could return to normalcy. As the numbers started rising, instead of trying to work out a cooperative plan on a countrywide basis to combat the epidemic, the BJP went on an offensive. Central ministers blamed the state governments for not doing enough and the people for having abandoned the safety norms of masks and social distancing. This is notwithstanding that the Cente had itself signalled a return to normal with public rallies, election campaigns and huge religious gatherings such as the Kumbha Mela. If people did relax the Covid-19 norms, they were only following what the leaders on the daises during rallies—Narendra Modi and Amit Shah included—were doing.
Bhalla maintained that to strengthen the public health system, introduce clear guidelines, and get states and local governments to function together is the first line of defence in handling a pandemic. The tragedy is that the central government, which has centralised all powers under the Disaster Management Act, refused to prepare itself or the states for this second wave, believing that the pandemic is over. No plan has also been announced for how the country will ramp up its production and delivery to meet the expanded target of vaccinating everybody above 18. Instead, the central government has abandoned the responsibility for either acquiring or delivering the vaccines except to health workers and people above 45 years old. It will supply this requirement from 50% of the country’s vaccine production. The rest 50% will be for the state governments and the open market. So, state governments are now directly responsible for their vaccine procurement, but without any mechanism in their hands to do so. The Centre has also removed all price controls on vaccines, allowing vaccine makers to sell them in the open market. Instead of a well thought out plan to increase vaccine production and vaccinate all the people, this appears to be a cynical exercise in abandoning the responsibility to vaccinating the people and blaming state governments for failing to vaccinate everybody, added Bhalla.
