“Pollen allergy will lead to chaos in Kashmir”
Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 7: The low speed mobile internet in Kashmir is hampering the fight against novel coronavirus and holding of e-classes for lakhs of students who are sitting home due to lockdown to prevent spread of the viral infection.
A senior doctor said that on April 1, the Union Government had invited doctors in Kashmir for online training session on managing ventilators but majority of the doctors were unable to attend due to curbs of the internet.
President of Doctors Association in Kashmir, Dr Suhail Naik, told Excelsior that they want to consult patients through video calls but are unable to do so in absence of the 4G internet. “We want to consult patients through video calls during the lockdown to avoid contact with the patients and avoid spread of the infection. We are handicapped in absence of high speed internet”, he said.
He said that the doctors want to spread messages through videos but who can watch them as speed is too low. “We want to educate people through videos which is not possible at 2G speed as they can’t download the videos”, the DAK president said.
Dr Naik said that they will face difficult situation in coming days as the pollen and dust allergy affects 30 percent of the population in Kashmir in spring. “We don’t want the patients with flu to flood the hospitals in Kashmir. In spring season, we have 30 percent people suffering from flu here”, he said.
He said that as per the protocol all patients with such symptoms have to be treated suspected COVID-19. “Under these circumstances all the flu will be suspected COVID-19 patients. We wanted to have consultation through video calls and identity the COVID-19 patients and refer them to COVID-19 clinics after following proper protocol”, he said.
The DAK president said that there will be catastrophic situation in Kashmir if the doctors don’t attend flu patients through video calls. “If the 4G is not restored and people with flu will flood the hospitals in Kashmir which will lead to catastrophic situation. Since there is already chaos and the symptoms are identical, it will be difficult for doctors and administration to deal with that kind of situation. To prevent such a situation 4G will be helpful”, he said.
President of the All Private Schools Association, G N Var said that they are ready with the online classes for 6.5 lakh students studying in their schools but low speed internet is hampering the process. “We are unable to connect with the students due to internet connectivity. It is 2G and they are unable to download the study material”, he said.
“We had appealed Government to restore 4G so that the students may not suffer. They are already staying at home since August last year. But they are not paying any heed to it”, he added.
Var said that earlier Government was giving excuse of law and order problem for its restoration but what is the issue now. “I fail to understand why they aren’t restoring the high speed internet. Earlier, they had an excuse of law and order problems but now there is curfew and fear of coronavirus and no one would dare to come out”, he said.
There are 12 lakh school children in Kashmir who are sitting idle at home and losing on education due to lack of high speed internet. The internet was shut down last year in August and 2G was restored two months ago.
However, Presentation Convent Higher Secondary Srinagar has started online audio classes through zoom but students said that speed is low and it often gets disconnected.
Some of the other private schools have sent study material to the students but they are unable to download it. “The school has asked us to download the study material from its website but we are unable to download it due to 2G speed”, said a student studying in a private school.
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