The covid crisis in Jammu and Kashmir has deepened more due to mismanagement in delivery of services and less due to violation of Covid protocols put in place in the second week of April the time when the situation had gone out of hands. In the first week of May this year the Jammu & Kashmir Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam said that non cooperation of the people in the vaccination drive is the cause of the ongoing unprecedented surge in the fresh strain of the covid-19 pandemic in Jammu & Kashmir but how can be defend the government now when the people are desperate to get themselves vaccinated but the vaccines have gone missing in the government run hospitals and other vaccination centres across Jammu & Kashmir. The shortage of vaccines has not only embarrassed the Jammu & Kashmir Government but it has also embarrassed even the central government which surprisingly embarked on a massive plan of vaccination supplies to some other countries without taking the stock of it’s own requirements in different states and union territories. This time when the covid situation has eased not only in western countries like USA and UK and entire middle east including UAE and Saudi Arabia the unprecedented surge in the fresh strain of covid-19 has scale up the requirements of oxygen plants, ventilators and vaccines across the country including Jammu and Kashmir. While unprecedented rise in the no of covid deaths and positive cases has panicked the hapless and helpless populations across Jammu & Kashmir, the health and medical education department does not announce any plan for any fresh vaccination drive in either Kashmir valley or Jammu division obviously due to shortage of vaccines. Just an announcement that orders have been placed for over one crore anti-covid vaccine doses can’t boil down the intensity of the fresh wave of pandemic but immediate delivery of the vaccines and an early vaccination drive can only bring down the rising intensity of daily covid deaths and positive cases. Administrative wisdom demands that even before starting the first vaccination drive the health and medical education department should have asked J&K Medical Supplies Corporation to procure the required stocks of anti-covid vaccines for the entire population of Jammu & Kashmir.
Better late than never and as such better for the government to take stock of it’s failures in the highest offices governing the health system in Jammu & Kashmir and ensure the delivery of anti-covid vaccines in short time for early commencement of a fast track vaccination drive simultaneously in both Kashmir valley and Jammu division.
Govt can’t evade criticism this time when people know that Financial Commissioner Health & Medical Education Department Attal Daloo has been looking after the health and medical education system in Jammu & Kashmir for last more than three years and interestingly he has also headed the health and medical education department previously also during the reign of Omar Abdullah led National Conference-Congress coalition government in erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state. So Attal Daloo can be new to any other department in Jammu & Kashmir but he is not new to health and medical education department in Jammu & Kashmir. Remember upgrading the health infrastructure for tacking the health emergencies can wait but anti-covid vaccination drive can’t wait in the present pressing circumstances. Interestingly the surge in pandemic is not as unprecedented in Kashmir as it is in Jammu despite the fact that government appointed recently a new director for the health department in Kashmir but did not transfer Director Health Jammu despite her brute failure in covid containment measures and overstaying in the office of Director Health Jammu for last more than three years. Better late than never and as such better for the government to take stock of it’s failures in the highest offices governing the health system in Jammu & Kashmir and ensure the delivery of anti-covid vaccines in short time for early commencement of a fast track vaccination drive simultaneously in both Kashmir valley and Jammu division.
