The apathy of state government in dealing with the crisis at GB Pant hospital and the long queues of people forced to wait in harsh winters outside LPG distribution centers to avail cooking gas shows how the conflict has dehumanized us and how it fails to shake our conscience, Bilal Handoo reports.
As They Said…
“Pride of Kashmir can be restored by demolishing the memorials of humiliation, of perceived collective dishonour. Some of those memories are temporal and since there is no remedy for bad history, not much can be done about that. But we can at least do away with the symbols that reinforce the negative interpretations of history. Repealing AFSPA would be a step in that direction.”
Shah Faesal, the topper of IAS in 2009, said after being introduced as an Icon of Kashmir by GOC Syed Ata Hasnain (now retired) in a function.
Infants at Kashmir’s only government-run tertiary childcare hospital GB Pant were dying a quiet death under the nose of officials but it was all kept a secret till the tragedy hogged headlines this year. It turned out to be one of the worst health debacles in recent history of Jammu and Kashmir.
The hospital was facing innumerable problems; lack of infrastructure, inadequate staff, insanitary wards, excess number of patients than the staff was equipped to handle, which collectively resulted in the tragic deaths.
Initially, the doctors and hospital staff remained adamant that the government had been ignoring their pleas for a long time. The authorities then rubbed salt to the wounds of victims and their families by stating that the patients admitted at the hospital had least chance of recovery. Both these statements were seen as an attempt to cover up the negligence by the government in providing healthcare facilities at the hospital.
As the heat of the matter travelled to Delhi, union health minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, walked into the hospital and called it a ‘matter of shame’. He announced a lot of measures including recruitment of new doctors, training of nurses and free drugs for children to tackle the problem. However, the scandalous manner in which the government handled the crisis exposed the muck inside the neonatal health centre and subsequently created uproar in autumn session of legislative assembly.
The revelations caused public outcry, and genuinely so. The death of 3828 infants in four years could have meant immediate rolling of heads in a civilized, intelligible society. Kashmir is a far cry. While the superintendent of GB Pant, Dr Javed Chaudhary, was suspended, the inquiry accused him of mishandling the crisis. He was attached to a department by the government, and that was about it. The story gradually lost its news-value in the media and the issue, like the children at GB Pant, died a quiet death!
In 1932, when the industrialized world witnessed the worst economic downturn called the Great Depression, long lines of impoverished people waiting to be fed were seen across the cities, towns and villages in western nations. As Delhi issued new regulatory guidelines on distribution of LPG this year, the scenes across Jammu and Kashmir were no different.
While Delhi announced the new policy on LPG distribution, it was an apathetic J&K government led by Omar Abdullah which implemented the policy in the state, without any protest. While it is understandable that Omar’s Durbar which shifted to Jammu doesn’t have to bear the brunt of winters, how are the people in Kashmir valley supposed to deal with such a crisis?
There is a severe ‘shortage’ of gas. With no gas to cook food and electricity playing hide-and-seek, the common people have been left at the mercy of shrewd, unrelenting and corrupt gas dealers who are using every trick in the book to make hay of their miseries. The new LPG policy had evoked huge public resentment.
Long queues of anguished men and women, braving the intense winter cold, are still seen waiting outside the cooking gas distributors in J&K to get their gas connections registered. The government paid a lip-service by issuing one statement after another, apparently to score a political point but nothing has changed on ground. The matter was taken up in the autumn session of legislative assembly and the house witnessed commotion. J&K’s powerful finance minister, Abdul Rahim Rather’s statement in the assembly didn’t change the matters, “The government was helpless since it has no say in deciding the LPG prices,” he said.
The new guidelines require a consumer to submit proof of identity, Rs 1250 security deposit for a cylinder without gas, Rs 180 for a safety pipe, Rs 150 for a regulator, Rs 200 for stove inspection and Rs 35 for consumer card. However, the gas dealers in Kashmir valley are taking the consumers for a ride by charging exorbitantly and the anguished people have been left with no option but to pay. The crisis, however, exposed how powerful are immune to such a crisis. Omar, who was found to enjoy three active gas connections under his name, surrendered two of them. That however doesn’t end the crisis.
