Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 5: Apni Party president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari today demanded an immediate opening of Mughal Road for the general public so as to reduce their sufferings in the time of COVID -19 pandemic.
In a statement issued here, Bukhari said that after the recent snow clearance just in line with that of Kashmir-Ladakh road, the Mughal Road must be also opened for the people keeping in view the second wave of COVID-19 situation across J&K.
“The people of Pir Panjal region lack tertiary care health facilities due to which they travel to Kashmir valley for getting their sick admitted into the local hospitals. Allowing only influential people to travel on Mughal road is sheer discrimination with the general public,” he remarked.
He said that the Mughal Road acts as an important land connectivity between Kashmir and Pir Panjal Region in view of the dilapidated condition of Srinagar Jammu National Highway and it should be thrown open to the people without any disparity.
Bukhari said it is highly outrageous that those who have access to the power corridors are being allowed to travel on this historic road while the general public especially the tribal community are deprived of their basic rights.
“People from Kashmir as well as from Pir Panjal region want to travel in a hassle free manner using this alternative connectivity but instead of facilitating their travel they are being restricted by the administration which is totally unjustified,” he opined.
Bukhari also expressed his serious concerns over an exponential spike in Covid fatalities and positive cases emerging in J&K on a daily basis. “This situation in J&K is grim as the number of COVID positive cases is alarmingly on rise. In few days the UT has witnessed many fatalities which reflects the intensity of the pandemic,” he said.
He however, expressed deep anguish over the lackadaisical approach assumed by the administration wherein many families of the COVID-19 patients are complaining about the scarcity of life saving drugs in the hospitals.
He appealed to the Lt Governor to declare this pandemic as a disaster and immediately make arrangements to procure live saving drugs along with ventilators and concentrated medical oxygen so that the people don’t have to lose their loved ones due to infrastructural deficiencies.
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