Kashmiri students and residents stranded in different areas of Pune in deplorable conditions, make heartrending appeal to the authorities to help them to get back home.
Appealing to the concerned authorities one of the students Yawar Khan exclaimed, “ I would like to bring to your notice that more than a week has passed since MHA issued guidelines and SOP regarding the movement of stranded persons but the government of j&k has taken the longest of time to layout a plan to evacuate its stranded residents and even then has not fully constituted a mechanism that will simultaneously bring back all the residents. More than 9000 students have registered online for evacuation in vain .Evacuation of labourers from places closer to J&K will pre-empt the evacuation of students and labourers from far off places i.e South Indian states. There seems no harm in such a plan and one shouldn’t panic over an implementation of it, however the problem lies in the situation of states like Maharashtra and Gujarat which are worst hit by Covid-19 cases. A majority of students and labourers stranded there are the most susceptible to infection because of extremely high number of cases that also are steeply rising. Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad etc should be prioritized for evacuation process as the cases there are highest in India. Yet the government in its lackadaisical attempt has chosen to bring back first the labourers from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and then the neighboring states. This is despite the fact that Maharashtra government has planned intra-state transport for stranded migrants and has deployed around 10,000 buses, where the expense of Rs 20 crore will be borne by Department of Relief and Rehabilitation.The half-hearted help extended by the administration is only ambiguous and insincere.
When in such trying hours, all the states have effectively managed to bring back a majority of its students, labourers back to their homes, J&K government is scratching their heads to figure out of ways and means to implement the evacuation process. Time is precious and with every passing day fear, hunger, uncertainties are staring in the faces of stranded J&K residents. Hundreds of artisans, self employed workers, sale men have lost their incomes and are losing their savings in rents. With little to no money left at their disposal, these men face the lingering question of survival in times like these. Students (especially stranded in Pune Maharashtra and Gujarat) who are staying at hostels are equally distressed because of the looming fear of getting infected. The J&K students desperately wish to return to their homes as they are not just only dodging themselves from getting infected but struggling with worst forms of panic, stress, fear and anxiety. The uncertainty has put maximum of students on risk of depression. All hopeful consoling by J&K administrators are mere nudges of salt on wounds now. With so much delay in timely action, many J&K people have sadly lost faith in the administration.
Still, we the people of J&K request the administration to hasten the planning of evacuation and implement an action plan timely. We do not fear being quarantined once we land in Kashmir, but staying here is no less than suicide”
