The Congress’s Jammu and Kashmir unit on Tuesday announced setting up of two separate committees to monitor the COVID-19 situation in the Union Territory and report directly to the party high command on a daily basis, a party spokesperson said.
The committees were constituted at an emergency meeting chaired by the State Congress Committee president G. A. Mir in Jammu to review the prevailing situation amid a spike in COVID-19 cases across the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
He said former Minister Raman Bhalla will head the four-member committee constituted for the Jammu region, while former Minister Taj Mohiuddin was appointed as the chairman of the four-member committee constituted for the Kashmir division.
“Both the committees will monitor the COVID-19 situation in their divisions and report to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on a daily basis,” he said.
The spokesman said the other members of the committees include former MLA Balwan Singh, Yogesh Sawney and Ravinder Sharma (for Jammu) and former MLA Mohammad Amin Bhat, General Secretary S. S. Channi and Abdul Gani Khan (for Kashmir).
The meeting expressed grave concern over the worsening coronavirus situation in the Union Territory as well as in the rest of the country and blamed the Central government for its “mishandling and failure” to take timely steps to create necessary health facilities to minimise the loss of lives.
“India is in the worst situation in the entire world mainly due to the failure of the government to act timely to prevent the spread of the fatal disease and to create necessary infrastructure and required health facilities in time for the second wave of the pandemic,” the party said in a statement.
It alleged that the BJP government was more concerned about the elections in different States than the lives of the people.
“The Modi government woke up just a couple of days ago when the situation went out of control and it has been taking steps to create those facilities like oxygen which should have been in place much before the second wave,” the release said.
In Jammu and Kashmir, it said 264 people succumbed to the pandemic this year including 153 this month alone.
The Congress also took a dig at the Jammu and Kashmir administration over the ongoing strike by transporters and said “the public transport is off the roads causing unbearable loss and avoidable hardship to the common people.” The private transporters have been on the strike across Jammu region since April 21 in support of their demand for 50% hike in passenger fare after the government capped the seating limit to 50% as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
