Govt defends decision to contain spread of COVID
Avtar Bhat
KATHUA, Feb 2: While the restrictions on movement of people and inter-State buses has been removed in entire country, but the same still continues in J&K where neither the inter State buses are allowed to cross the Ravi bridge towards Lakhanpur—the gateway of J&K nor the commuters are allowed to leave with out undergoing check and COVID test before entering the Kathua or other parts of Jammu region.
According to sources, this has put the commuters visiting J&K from rest of the country to “too much inconvenience” as they have to undergo a lot of harassment after reaching Madhopur -the last border of Punjab connecting J&K. What has added to the woes of these commuters traveling via inter- State buses is that they have to alight from their vehicles at Madhopur and travel one kilometer distance by foot up to Lakhanpur COVID Check Post along with bag and baggage as well as their children. Even the specially -abled persons, old and infirm are not spared and they have to cross this distance by foot in the biting cold of winter, sources added.
They said that after reaching COVID Check Post at Lakhanpur they have to undergo a strange exercise there too as after filling up forms and completing other formalities the commuters are asked to intimate the number of the vehicle in which they have to travel to their next destination and with no vehicle available for travel near the Check Post they are unable to reveal the same. The passengers have to further travel one km up to Bus Stand Lakhanpur from the COVID Check Post to board a bus, sources added.
This way the commuters are put to lot of harassment and humiliation, sources said, adding the practice has hampered the movement of pilgrims and tourists to the State as no one will like to waste time and to be subjected to extraordinary exercise at Lakhanpur Check Post.
Sources said on the one hand Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) has increased the number of visiting pilgrims to the holy shrine to 25,000 per day while on the other hand the administration has not eased the restrictions to the desired level at Lakhanpur entry point. This practice will also hit the trade and tourist industry which has already suffered a huge loss due to COVID lockdown in last about one year and it will be put them to further loss, sources added.
The traders in Jammu as well as holy township of Katra and people dealing with tourist industry in the UT have already suffered a lot and such restrictions are further adding to their woes, sources said, adding the worst sufferers of the restrictions at Lakhanpur are the students studying in other states of country, migratory laborers, traders visiting neighboring Punjab, HP and Haryana or other states in connection with business, patients going for treatment to outside J&K, private Sector and Government employees working outside the UT especially those employees of J&K working in Ranjit Sagar Dam in Punjab are put to hardships by these unnecessary restrictions.
Sources said after completing the formalities at COVID Check Point Lakhanpur, the commuters face problems in locating the vehicle for their further destination and some times they had to wait for long time till locating a conveyance for travel to Jammu or other parts of UT. Sources said though the SMVDSB has increased the flow of pilgrims to visit holy cave to 25,000 daily it has not increased more than 10 to 15,000 the reason being the restrictions put at Lakhanpur.
Tarseem Lal from Gurdaspur, Punjab, a hawker working in Jammu said that he was traveling along with luggage and his children to Jammu. But he had to deport from the bus at Madhopur in Punjab as inter -State buses are not allowed to enter Lakhanpur. Tarseem, who had heavy luggage and small kids faced lot of hardships in covering the distance from Madhopur to Lakhanpur and he had to take rest at three to four places on the road side before reaching to Check Post. “It reminds me about the old days as narrated by my elders who said that no vehicle from outside India was allowed to enter J&K with out a permit and people had to alight from vehicles at Madhopur in Punjab to travel to J&K’’. This is very horrible and unfortunate, he added.
Sources, while expressing their surprise over the practice said the system adopted at Lakhanpur for checking is mere a formality especially for those people traveling in their own four wheelers or two wheelers. They are asked to report at the counter and given the Yellow Coloured form. They are asked to fill the same and return it at counter. They are asked to disclose their name, phone number and mention the name of place where from they came and where they have to go which is just a formality. There is no check that the details filed by the person in the form are factual so making such a checking is mere a formality and nothing else, sources added.
When contacted Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Sanjeev Verma fully defended the Government decision saying this way the administration has been able to maintain the check on spread of pandemic. The decision is for the benefit of the people of the UT, he added. He said in eight districts there were zero positive cases as on today. With constant improvement in the situation, the Government may try to review the decision about checking at Lakhanpur, he added.
However, District Development Commissioner, Kathua, O P Bhagat said the State Administrative Council (SAC) can take the decision whether the COVID checking will continue at Lakhanpur or not. He said as Kathua being in the Red Zone the testing and checking will continue for further two months. “We can’t take any risk as in Britain the cases have increased in January. The commuters are not facing any problem at Lakhanpur Check point and it takes hardly few minutes in completing the formalities on entry point at Lakhanpur’’, he added.
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