In order to make arrangements for regulated movement of stranded people, students, tourists, pilgrims and other persons stranded at different places due to lockdown, Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, K. K. Sharma and Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam today visited Lakhanpur and took stock of preparations being made by the Kathua District Administration.At the outset, the Advisor said that the performance of J&K in fighting COVID-19 has been satisfactory till now. He said that with persistent zeal we can break the chain of transmission and make J&K Corona free.CS while spelling out the initiatives undertaken by the Government said that 30,000 to 40,000 people of J&K are stranded outside UT due to the lockdown. Thousands of them have been evacuated and amplified efforts are on the way to rescue more people so that they can be brought back to their home as soon as possible, CS added.In Lakhanpur, 3000 people can come at a time and 100 buses can ferry these people to their respective districts, but now onwards 100% Corona testing is mandatory for all the incoming travelers- by taking their blood sample- and necessary directions regarding this have already been given to the Mission Director, NHM, CS informed and stated that result of the blood test will be available within 24 hours.Elaborating various aspects of evacuation of stranded people, CS said that HP and Punjab are nearer to J&K, that’s why the people stranded there were evicted first but there is no reason to worry for those people who are stranded at other, far off, places as a system has been put in place for evacuation and it is a matter of few days that all will get evicted.
For students, the CS divulged that, they flagged their location using different online platforms and the UT administration formed several groups to facilitate their regulated movement into J&K. Similarly, the left outs will also be facilitated at the earliest.The Advisor and CS also inspected the quarantine centre at Lakhanpur.Earlier, they also visited the Facility Centre of J&K SICOP at Kathua and had a meeting with the officers of SICOP and District Industries Centre.They also visited two industrial units, Fena washing powder and Jackson generators. Also interacted with the managers of these industrial units and inquired about the difficulties faced by them during lockdown.Later, the Advisor and CS also visited Seri village of Billawar to oversee the agricultural activities in the area. To facilitate the farmers, six tractors, thrasher, mobile vending cart, bore well and a diesel plough was also distributed among farmers by them.A delegation of farmers also raised several demands in front of them which mainly pertained to crop damage due to monkey menace, requirement of a vegetable mandi and poly house for growing plants at controlled climatic condition.The farmers also urged them for getting urgent repair of the damaged hand pumps as 50% of the installed hand pumps of the area are non functional and require immediate repair to prevent water crisis in the ensuing summer season.Later the Advisor and CS also inspected the facilities being provided at the quarantine centre set up in the Degree College at Billawar.Commissioner Secretary, Jal Shakti Department, Ajeet Sahu; DC Kathua, O P Bhagat; Mission Director NHM, Bhupinder Kumar; Director Industries Jammu, Anoo Malhotra; Director Agriculture Jammu, Inder Jeet; MD SICOP, Atul Sharma; SSP Kathua , Shailendar Mishra; Nodal Officers of Lakhanpur Control Room, Arun Manhas & Arvind Karwani; GM DIC, Babu Ram and other concerned accompanied the Advisor.