Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 27: Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) today urged State Government to review its decision of gagging internet in Kashmir valley, saying it is hitting people including students and businessmen badly.
The Chamber said that life in general in Kashmir which stands already driven to a tight corner due to the untoward situation and disruption in economic activity of all sorts has been subjected to another severe jolt by suspension of internet connectivity.
Taking a review of the effects on the day to day economic activity, the KCCI president Mushtaq Ahmad Wani said it is revealed that frequent suspension of internet services in the past and now with its fresh bout has badly affected the people of Kashmir in general in one way or the other.
“Large numbers of students seeking admission, scholarship, entrance tests and aspiring for competitive exams are not in a position to download the prescribed forms and file the same online with the institutions situated elsewhere in the country or outside the country,” he said.
Wani said the business in general be that the general trade, handicraft business exports/ import business gets severely affected with access denied to the stakeholders through internet to markets where they are tied to sell and purchase their merchandise and settle the deals through internet connectivity. “As a result the woes faced by the public due to unrest are further added to which again leads to untold miseries,” he said.
The KCCI president said the handicraft dealers who are committed to business deals outside the state are likely to fail in keeping with the schedules and commitments. “The tourism activity which starts taking off with the beginning of the spring season, is apt to get thwarted, as suspension of internet in the present day digital world sounds louder than actual alarm of disquiet in the valley which obviously cause scare for the tourist to visit the destination in the valley, more so because they will not be able to connect with the hotels/Travel agents/tour operators to arrange their tour.
The internet gag has again badly affected the IT Companies, which are rendered practically defunct in absence of the internet connectivity, he said, adding that the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries therefore feels obliged to bring to the notice of the Government that suspension of the internet in effect is proving more “anti-people than a pro-people measure with disastrous effects on people’s activity at large and would accordingly urge the authorities to review the decision and allow the social networking function with greater speed and spirit”.
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