Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 19: Blaming the bureaucratic set up of being unsympathetic and having utterly failed to the respond to the distressed calls of stranded labourers, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) has asked the Government to streamline the process of travel permission and transportation of labourers to and fro J&K.
“The UT administration has provided the telephone numbers of officers to be contacted but they don’t pick up phones. The online registration is nearly impossible for most labourers stranded outside. Several such labour groups daily make distress calls and complain about the insensitive system,” the JKPCC alleged in a handout issued today.
Chief Spokesperson JKPCC Ravinder Sharma said that the there are few transport operators and their agents who are in constant touch with the authorities and easily get permission on exorbitant rates of fares. The labourers are being fleeced in this situation too, while those who can’t afford have to wait for Government systems to respond.
Urging the Government to immediately register the stranded people on multiple helpline numbers and other modes and operate required buses and trains to provide relief to suffering labourers, Sharma said that the labourers are totally annoyed over the response of the administration and officers to their plight and it is most unfortunate and painful.
Meanwhile, he said, over 300 stranded labourers have finally approached Congress unit at Sunderbani for arranging their permission and transportation, as the authorities have so far failed to restore their requests. Similarly, a group of over 22 labourers belonging to Sunderbani are stranded in Jalandhar (Punjab) but did not get response to their requests made to J&K authorities.
He also mentioned a case of Jammu student Nikhil Gupta who is stranded in UK but getting no positive response here and getting frustrated. “Such an approach is totally unjustified and if required remedial measures are not taken, strong protests shall be lodged against the authorities,” Sharma asserted.
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