Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 2: Jammu Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari today expressed serious concern over the plight of J&K residents who despite completing the mandatory quarantine period in various parts of the country, are not being brought back to Jammu and Kashmir.
In a statement issued here, Bukhari said a number of J&K students and pilgrims evacuated by the Government of India from Iran have been declared negative for COVID-19 after passing a mandatory quarantine period in Mumbai. “Ironically, the J&K authorities have refused return of these people to their homeland. These hapless J&K residents have been compelled to continue staying at the quarantine facility in Mumbai leaving the vulnerable to infections of the deadly disease,” Bukhari observed, while calling for immediate intervention of the Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu in the matter.
Similarly, he added, a number of J&K students who were brought back from Pakistan via Punjab have completed their quarantine period and despite the Punjab Government offering them transport services, the J&K authorities are reportedly not allowing their entry to Jammu and Kashmir.
“I also told that a number of students and craftsmen who have completed their quarantine period at Jaisalmer Rajasthan and have been declared negative for COVID-19 are stranded due to apathetic attitude of J&K administration,” the JKAP president remarked.
He urged the Lieutenant Governor of J&K that all stranded J&K residents, including students, pilgrims and traders who are held up in different quarantine facilities across the country despite their tests showing negative for COVID-19, be immediately brought back to their homeland.
“How can J&K administration shy away from its responsibility of getting back its stranded residents under the garb of country wide lockdown? When the supply of essential commodities on national highway is not blocked due to lockdown, how has J&K administration left its own residents to the mercy of hostile conditions of quarantine facilities?” Bukhari asked, while demanding an urgent and appropriate action in the matter.
He stressed that the Government of India must arrange special domestic flights to facilitate return of stranded J&K residents from various parts of the country to their homeland, the way flights have been arranged to shift citizens of other countries who were stuck in various parts of the India.
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