The second strain of covid-19 pandemic has like many other parts of the country severely hit Jammu & Kashmir also but the cause of the ongoing spread in Jammu & Kashmir was the opening of parks and gardens in the very first week of April. The Government randomly threw open parks and gardens on the advice of the top babus of the tourism department as if health specialists had declared India a covid free country . Not only they threw open parks and gardens but they also conducted evening cultural show at Badamwari Srinagar only to let the covid pandemic spread on a high intensity across Jammu & Kashmir. While the onus for the spread of the current strain of covid pandemic lies on the government particularly the tourism department the Director Tourism Kashmir shockingly has in a review meeting of tourism development authorities talked about a vaccination drive for the stake holders of tourism department . Instead of taking the blame on his head for the current spread of the pandemic in view of his accelerated tourist activities in April and subsequently seeking an apology for embarking on an ill advised plan of tourist activities in Kashmir the Director Tourism Kashmir unfortunately talks about vaccination drive which for all practical purposes is the domain of health and medical education department. Vaccination is not exclusively for stake holders of Kashmir tourism department only but the entire civilian population of Jammu & Kashmir. Amid complaints of vaccination shortage Director Tourism talking about a vaccination drive for stakeholders of J&K tourism is a crude joke as the target for the vaccination is the population of a particular age group but not the people of a particular commercial and trading activities. Instead of talking about vaccination for stakeholders of tourism department better it would have been for the Director Tourism Kashmirto talk about the return of such tourists to their home states who are still staying in hotels amid intensifying covid-19’s fresh strain in Kashmir.
It is for the government to seek explanations from those officers who ill advised it to massively carry out tourist activities in Kashmir in presence of intensifying strain of covid pandemic and now they desperately tend to divert the attention from tourist activities to healthy safety of the stakeholders of Kashmir tourism. For all practical purposes super spreaders can’t be the preventers of the fresh strain of the covid-19 pandemic.
Interestingly tourists are still staying in different hotels across Kashmir which if vacated by them can be used as covid care centres in view of the increasing crisis of bed availability in government hospitals and private nursing homes. Interestingly Srinagar has virtually become the epicenter of fresh strain of covid pandemic by registering highest no of covid cases on each and every day in Jammu & Kashmir and this increasing frequency in the no of covid cases in Srinagar is obviously because of the heavy presence of tourists and migrant construction workers of other states in the city. Notably about 80 covid caseswere reported from Kunzer area of Baramulla district few days ago and most of the infected persons were though tourist guides but tourism department perhaps does not even know about their association with the tourists and tourism in Kashmir. Unfortunately officers controlling tourism department in Kashmir only appease their bosses as they conducted cultural shows to appease their bosses in the name of tourism promotion the time when fresh strain of the covid pandemic was on the rise and now they tend to appease them in the name covid vaccination for the stakeholders of tourism and tourist activities. It is for the government to seek explanations from those officers who ill advised it to massively carry out tourist activities in Kashmir in presence of intensifying strain of covid pandemic and now they desperately tend to divert the attention from tourist activities to healthy safety of the stakeholders of Kashmir tourism. For all practical purposes super spreaders can’t be the preventers of the fresh strain of the covid-19 pandemic.
