Covid-19: 90 red zones in J&K

Srinagar: Although the administration declared a lockdown in Sringar and other parts of Kashmir from 19 March, Covid-19 positive cases rose to about 325 on Friday evening.

Police has filed 1,000 FIRs against common people in UT of Jammu and Kashmir for violating lockdown norms, especially in the declared red zones. Recently, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said that it will initiate action against officers found lax in ensuring lockdown in their respective areas.

With Covid-19 positive cases piling up, 90 red zones have been declared and officials will go for digital surveillance in these red zones to combat the growing cases.

“They should fix responsibility as senior officers of civil and police administration allowed people to go home from airports and now rest of the population has to bear the brunt,” said Ishfaq Ahmad of Natipora locality of Srinagar, which is the latest red zone declared in Srinagar after two persons tested positive in this area.

Recently, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary B.V.R Subrahmanyam had to intervene when 5,000 rapid testing kits meant for Kashmir were diverted to Jammu by a senior official. Even after his intervention, only 4,000 kits were brought back to Srinagar on Tuesday, for testing of suspected cases. While officials told this reporter that inquiry has been ordered in various complaints against officers, including the thrashing of SMC workers by police in Srinagar city, a government spokesman said that media reports about testing kits were not correct.

In a recent high-level meeting, Subrahmanyam asked the administration to put “residents of red zone areas on surveillance by tracking their mobile devices to check their physical movement”. The government has asked its machinery to employ the Aarogya Setu mobile application to help people combat the risk of contracting the Covid-19 virus. Standard operating procedures were issued in 90 red zones in the Union Territory—72 in the valley and 18 in the Jammu division.

Meanwhile, in the current week, thousands of families were caught in the border villages of Kupwara, Rajouri and Poonch in artillery fire exchanged between Indian and Pakistani troops. This is unusual for them as the nearby villages are not giving them shelter and sending them back due to Covid-19 threat. These villagers are not getting shelter in adjacent villages and have to forget social distancing to save themselves from artillery fire. In the past one week, there has been a spike in artillery shelling from Pakistani soldiers, resulting in three deaths in a Kupwara and injuries to many civilians in Poonch sector. A young boy was hospitalized on Friday as he got splinter injuries from a shell in Poonch sector.

Army chief General M.M. Naravane on Friday condemned the relentless ceasefire violations by Pakistan on the Line of Control in Kashmir, saying the whole world is battling the coronavirus pandemic, but the neighbouring country has not stopped stirring trouble. General Naravane was on a two-day visit to J&K to have firsthand information about the situation on the borders amid the national lockdown and an unusual spike in ceasefire violations. When recently three civilians were killed and five others injured due to shelling by Pakistan in Kupwara village, police did not allow the fleeing villagers to enter neighbouring villages as they have been declared as red zones of coronavirus. Many of them had to spend the night in the open.