J&K Govt holidays as crises worsen

But all these problems seem to be none of the government’s concern. Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, and several of his ministerial colleagues, who are supposed to be grappling for solutions to these problems are, in fact, holidaying at various places leaving the city virtually on a volcano.

What to talk of the Chief Minister to be present in the State, he is not even in the country. As if to make the agitators realise that he cares a hoot about their problems oragitations he is holidaying along with his family in London. Least bothering about the problems patients must be facing in hospitals because of the strike, his younger brother and Health Minister, Dr Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, has gone to Srinagar to celebrate Eid. Similarly, Minister for Housing and Urban Development Moulvi Ifitkar Hussain Ansari, Education Minister Abdul Qayoom, and Minister for Works Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Shah, are also reported to be in Srinagar.

Perhaps in a bid to give a feeling of normalcy in the city, sources said, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister P L Handoo, Tourism Minister Ajatshatru Singh, Minister of State for Home Ali Mohammad Sagar, and Minister of State for Industries Aga Syed Mehmood are also reported to be out of the city.

Significantly, the holidaying by the Chief Minister and his various ministerial colleagues seems to be planned to leave the people at the mercy of the strikers and wear them out.

Students and lawyers, who are supported by various trade, religious,social and political organisations, have been agitating to press the State Government order a CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the recent selections to the MBBS and BDS courses. Similarly, junior doctors in the region have been pressing the government to fix a deadline for the removal of anomalies in their pay-scales.

Instead of trying to find a solution to the problem to the satisfaction of all the parties and facilitate the opening of educational institutions as early as possible, the entire government, strangely, opted to go on holiday.

As a result of deadlock in talks between agitating doctors and the administration, the authorities at the Government Medical College here have suspended all OPDs at the GMC and its other associated hospitals in the district indefinitely in view of the strike by junior doctors.

Similar is the situation with Health Department dispensaries in rest of the region.

However, this is not the end of the ongoing unrest in the region. The people having migratedto Jammu from the hilly Doda district due to fear of militants from time to time during the last four years, have also been holding a dharna-cum-chain hunger strike in front of the office of the Relief Commissioner here. They have been demanding of the Government to treat them at par with Kashmiri migrants and provide them relief and other basic amenities during their stay here.

Coal mine workers from Kalakote are also holding a dharna outside the office of the Divisional Commissioner here for the last many days in protest against the closure of the coal mines. With the Chief Minister and party on a holiday, the junior lot of ministers and bureaucrats appear helplessly watching the situation snowballing into a major crisis as the agitators do not seem to be in a mood to talk to them.