Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Member of Parliament Hasnain Masoodi on Sunday asked the JK administration to prepare a comprehensive plan for evacuation of laborers, students, shawl vendors and others from Kashmir, Chenab Valley and Pir-Panchal region stranded in different parts of the country.
While drawing attention of the administration to plight of laborers stranded at Hamirpur, Shimla, Kangra, Bilaspur, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Pathankot, Charkhi- Dadri, Sirsa, Delhi and other towns across the country Masoodi said, “The stranded laborers are running out of money as the wages they had earned have got consumed by the extended stay, leaving them without sufficient funds to organize travel to rejoin their families. The difficulties faced by students stranded at Amritsar, Delhi, Bangalore, Indore, Chennai, Jaisalmir, Jodhpur and other places are beyond description.”
Pointing out to the hostile climate and soaring temperatures he said the woes of stranded people have increased manifold, “the J&k administration should think towards roping in fleet of SRTC buses, to facilitate return of all those stranded at different places in northern India, following the mechanism reportedly employed by the Gujarat Government for evacuating about two thousand pilgrims, during lockdown from Ayodhya to Gujarat using Deluxe Coaches.
The students from far off places like Indore, Bangalore, Chennai, Jaisalmir and Jodhpur, it is emphasized, deserve to be airlifted to Srinagar,” he said adding, “the expected airlifting of pilgrims quarantined at Mumbai would be a welcome step and would need to be followed in case of those stranded at Jaisamir, Jodhpur, Bangalore and other far off places.”
He also expressed his anguish over absence of a coordinated effort to organize shelter, ration and eatables for the stranded, who, he said have been made to fend for themselves in the face of acute crisis. Masoodi has also called for immediate steps for return of students stranded in Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan and asked the administration to take up the matter with Ministry of External Affairs, without any further delay.
