NC calls for stepping up Covid sustenance relief to people

National Conference (NC) Saturday said that the relief package announced by the J&K government does not match the gravity of the humanitarian and economic crisis confronting the people and asked for increasing the quantum of package followed by a robust package follow-up.

Expressing concern over perpetual silence of the government on the slumping J&K economy under lock downs, NC General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar in a statement issued here said the lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir began way before the country went into lockdown.

He said that the J&K economy had already been struggling to cope up with the losses incurred by it due to the 2014 deluge.

Sagar said that with one after another successive clampdowns and Covid -19 induced lockdowns, the economic situation had been forced on a path of total collapse, making its recovery a far-fetched dream.

He said that the newly-announced fiscal response of the J&K government was insufficient to make up for the losses incurred by local traders, agriculturalists, tourism players and artisans.

“It is said that the losses incurred by J&K economy run in thousands of crores of rupees and the figures given out by various studies also corroborate the proposition. The government’s specified amount of Rs 51 crore fiscal response to Covid-19 is too less and too late against the grim backdrop of increasing price index and consequent price rise of all essential commodities. Amidst all this, a Rs 1000 monthly Covid sustenance package to  only registered workers  is akin to adding insult to the injuries of our struggling artisans, labourers, hawkers, transporters, construction workers, and lakhs of people engaged in both the organised as well as unorganised labour force,” Sagar said

He said that the relief was discriminatory and had overlooked lakhs of unregistered labourers, marginal traders, construction workers and hawkers, who in absence of any respite from the government were finding it difficult to meet ends.

“It has also become difficult for the local traders, manufacturers, and tourism players to keep their businesses afloat in absence of any respite from the government to lenders over mounting bank loans and denied debt moratoriums. People associated with the handicrafts and transport sector across J&K, particularly in Srinagar have specifically bore the brunt of the discriminatory attitude of the administration. I hope the administration will not act blind to their miseries and come to their rescue as soon as possible,” Sagar said.

Calling the package an insufficient remedy to the ailing economy of J&K, he said that the government should employ an objective approach towards the issues faced by the J&K economy to save it from the predatory effect of the ravaging Covid induced crisis.

Sagar impressed upon the administration to ensure the steady supply chain of medicines to ensure that the families of Covid patients were not exposed to a rapacious black market. He called for making a fixed deposit of Rs 8 lakh and a monthly allowance of Rs 3500 for their sustenance to the children orphaned by the Covid impact. In addition to that Sagar also sought adequate ex-gratia for the families whose sole winners were devoured by the ravaging pandemic.

He also drew the attention of the government to the food insecurity in tribals and urged the government to take stock of the supplies in the higher reaches.