J&K suffering on all counts, Modi Govt nowhere visible: Bhalla/Sawhney

Jammu: The Congress party, on Saturday, held a meeting of the Jammu Gandhi Nagar Assembly Constituency attended by Block Presidents and senior Congress leaders. The meeting was chaired by Former Minister Yogesh Sawhney, General Secretary PCC & InCharge District President Jammu (U), and was presided over by Former Minister Raman Bhalla, Vice President PCC. Prominent among those who attended the meeting include Dr Ramankant Khajuria,  Block Presidents Satish Sharma, Yudvir Singh , Mandeep Singh,  Vijay Singh Chib, Kulbushan Sharma,  Sham Parshad Sharma, Pawan Sharma, Pardeep Bhalla, Jasbir Singh, Harbansh Singh, Gurdeep Singh Kaka, Balwinder Singh Rinku,  Ravinder Singh Ravi, Vijay Khajuria Viju besides others.The Congress leaders conducted talks over intensifying the party’s actions and strengthening the party at the ground level. Congress leaders decided to continue to take effective measure to urge the government in addressing the covid situation, health crisis, economic crisis, unemployment and other developmental issues in Jammu, and to create awareness and understanding among the public regarding these critical matters.

Former Minister Raman Bhalla addressing the meeting said that the BJP government has deeply disappointed the people of Jammu again and again. Every section is under stress and pressure from the various failures of this government. Even during Covid, people are forced to step out of their homes to fight for their needs through the medium of protests and strikes. People are protesting for lack of medical facilities. Farmers have been fighting for their cause,these anti-farmer and anti-poor agri-laws passed in the Parliament in a brazen manner without any consultation, debate and discussion is bound to destroy the agriculture sector and threaten India’s food security.

Bhalla further claimed that men, women and students, poor and middle class, all sections are resentful. Hundreds of wine traders had staged a protest against the e-auction of liquor vends under the new excise policy in J&K. Workers of the PHE department, government employees are also on this list. This state of affairs indicates the lack of trust in this government and rightly so, because this government hasn’t earned their trust. We have heard the government’s empty promises and seen their actions, both of which don’t match. The Congress party will continue to stand up to their disservice.

While terming the rising Covid-19 positive cases and deaths due to the deadly virus in J&K as worrisome, Bhalla said that J&K government has run out of options and has failed to tackle the pandemic.“What is the government’s plan to go forward as the coronavirus is growing exponentially in J&K. The overall policies to tackle the pandemic and their implementation only underline the mess created by the government,” he said.The Congress leader said the government utterly failed to utilize the lockdown period to expand the infrastructure of the public health system, ensuring adequate medical equipment, PPEs and other supplies.“The government should have strengthened the public health system on a war-footing basis during the lockdown period, but unfortunately its priorities lied somewhere else. All these point to the all-round failure of the government in tackling the pandemic. It looks as if the government has run out of options and is reconciled to the pandemic running its course,” he rued.

Bhalla  said there is an urgent need for massive testing, tracing and isolating cases on a large-scale in a systematic way. “The government must rely on health experts and epidemiologists to formulate policies with regard to testing, contact tracing and isolation of people affected by the virus. So-far the policies to tackle Covid-19 are being formulated by the bureaucrats which has proved a disaster,” he said.Former Minister said the Covid-19 pandemic is at dangerous stages and until an effective mechanism is developed it will be a long and hard battle. “The government should increase beds with high-flow oxygen in hospitals at the earliest. The government must also purchase more ventilators to augment the capacity of hospitals and then you need to have more doctors to utilise those ventilators. There is also an urgent need for staff that can run ICUs and high-dependency units,” he said.

Also speaking at the meeting, Former Minister Yogesh Sawhney urged fellow attendees to face matters head on and take critical issues into their hands. He said that Congress leaders will work to create awareness among public and provide help wherever possible especially by urging the government to open its eyes towards its own blunders. Half the government is sleeping through the pandemic, and half is busy in election campaigning. None of it is concerned about the miserable situation the country is in right now. The second wave of covid has already hit the country, and health facilities in most states can’t cope up, including in Jammu.

Sawhney further claimed that economic situation, too, is heartbreaking and if the country will have to move into another lockdown, considering the growing number of coronavirus cases, the economy will go further down the drain. Adults, employed and unemployed are extremely vulnerable and fallible to financial hardships now. Jal Shakti daily wagers did not get their salaries last four months. The government’s anti-worker and anti-labour policies are driving people to extreme hardships. The government is trying to paint a rosy picture to everything but that isn’t possible. The Modi government has completely failed in keeping its promises to the people of India. The need of the hour is for everyone to come together to change this government.