Sagar calls for stepping up Covid sustenance relief to people
Seeks comprehensive fiscal stimulus package for ailing transport, handicraft, tourism, horticulture, manufacturing sectors
Srinagar, 29 May (KB): The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Saturday stated that the relief package announced by the incumbent JK government does not match the gravity of the humanitarian and economic crisis confronting the people asking for increasing the quantum of package followed by a robust package follow-up.
Expressing concern over perpetual silence of the government on the slumping JK economy under lock downs, the Party General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar said the lock down in Jammu and Kashmir began way before the country went into lockdown. He said the JK economy has already been struggling to cope up with the losses incurred by it due to the 2014 deluge; with one after another successive clamp downs and Covid -19 induced lock downs, the economic situation, he said has been forced on a path of total collapse, making its recovery a far-fetched dream. The newly announced fiscal response of the incumbent JK government, Sagar said, is insufficient to make up for the losses incurred by local traders, agriculturalists, tourism players and artisans.
“It is said that the losses incurred by JK economy run in thousands of Crores, 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 rubbing salt into the wounds of our struggling artisans, laborers, hawkers, transporters, construction workers, and lacs of people engaged in both organized as well as unorganized labor force,” he said
Sagar said the relief is discriminatory as well as it has overlooked Lacs of unregistered labourers, marginal traders, construction workers and hawkers, who in absence of any respite from government are finding it difficult to meet both ends of their life. “It has also become difficult for the local traders, manufacturers, tourism players to keep their businesses float in absence of any respite from government to lenders over mounting bank loans and denied debt moratoriums. People associated with the handicrafts and transport sector across JK, particularly in Srinagar have specifically bore the brunt of the discriminatory attitude of the incumbent administration. I hope the administration will not act blind to their miseries and come to their rescue as soon as possible,” he said.
Calling the package an insufficient remedy to the ailing economy of JK, Sagar said the Government should employ an objective approach towards the issues faced by the JK economy to save it from the predatory effect of the ravaging Covid induced crises. He also impressed upon the administration to ensure the steady supply chain of medicines to ensure that the families of Covid patients are not exposed to a rapacious black market. Sagar also called for making a fixed deposit of Rs 8 lacs and a monthly allowance of Rs 3500 for their sustenance to the children orphaned by the Covid impact. In addition to that he also sought adequate ex-gratia for the families whose sole winners were devoured by the ravaging pandemic. He also drew the attention of the incumbent government to the food insecurity in tribals and urged the government to take stock of the supplies at higher reaches. (KB — Kashmir Bulletin)
