Failed in proper planning, Poonch administration is “Wagging the Dog” on Covid-19; Police imposing curbs on Media
SALIL RAINA
(POONCH TODAY NEWS)
POONCH: They say that a dog is smarter than its tail’, but if the tail were smarter, then the tail would wag the dog and the same is the condition of district administration Poonch, which was just diverting the attention of people from its failure as few of its officers were indulged in misbehaving with everybody, be it subordinate officials, persons in need of movement passes and Media fraternity. Even a Police officer was seen using unparliamentarily languages with few people, even with his staff members. The only achievement of district administration was strictness to some extent imposed on the ground as administration was not allowing anybody to move freely to avoid spread of Corona virus, because the other day, few people of Rajouri district were tested positive and some areas have been declared as red zone and this has created a wave of panic among the people. Lack of planning was clearly visible from administration side right from day one, but barring imposing restrictions on the movement of people, administration has failed on other fronts. During the ongoing crisis, Community leaders can play an effective role in city and in far flung areas of Poonch district, but no planning has been made yet to educate the people on Corona issue and to utilize the services of Community leaders of every area which includes Sarpanches, Panches, and other prominent citizens, because its impossible for administration to reach every nook and corner to trace the movement of suspected persons having doubtful travel history. Even Tehsil and block administrations have been lacking result oriented man power. There has been no coordination between administration and various stakeholders in the district. Even, administration has not constituted any proper information cell for the purpose to spread information through various modes on various issues related to prevention of Corona and steps needed to be taken in this context. Although, a social media account was created by administration for information purpose, but that too late. After five days of lockdown, few steps were taken by administration, but still lot needed to be done. There is huge shortage of essential medicines in health centres of far flung areas. Even Doctors posted at far flung areas least bothered to check patients of emergency nature. Medicines are not available to people of far flung areas what to call of masks and sanitizers. People are also facing shortage of daily essential commodities. Administration seems to be working on papers only. There is a lack of coordination between administration and community leaders with regard to identification of Corona suspects. However, few Quarantine centres have been established to meet the challenge for the future, but from hygienic point of view, a lot needed to be done in all such centres. Initially, without any planning and to divert the attention of people from its failed planning, administration imposed movement restrictions on the people and nothing else. Even, there were reports that few Police officers misbehaved with media persons as the former used abusive language against the latter and it’s a question mark on professionalism of Police which has been trying to harass the fourth estate repeatedly. One of the Police officer by showing stick to Media persons, said, “Chalo ander. Media band hai” and it shows that Police is only showing arrogance rather than proving its mettle on the ground in dealing with the ongoing crisis. No doubt, few Police officers were seen performing their job on professional standards, but there are few others, who have brought a bad name for Police with their hollow arrogance. As PM Modi has appreciated the role of Indian Media on Corona and also stressed for social distancing, but few scornful Police officers were seen walking with huge security cover and were seen imposing curbs on Media. Were they not aware of risk of having huge closely managed security cover? Disaster Management Planning was seen fully missing in the district. There is huge shortage of medicines, masks and sanitizers in the district and absence of the same, may prove fatal in days to come. At individual level, various volunteer organizations were seen educating the people about the benefits of social distancing in addition of distributing food, masks and sanitizers, but from administration front, lack of proper planning was seen on most issues. The district is going through Information deficit mode, because there are huge curbs on Media fraternity and as a result, Media is unable to perform its job fully. A social media user wrote, “While the entire J&K is practising #social distancing, but District administrations Poonch and Rajouri are practising social media distancing, because no real time information of happenings in our surroundings are coming and people are doomed.” Same is the case of Rajouri district where administration has not devised a major strategy to combat this virus, as reportedly, few persons were tested positive and their closed contacts were seen to Quarantine. Even some big names were sent for Quarantine what to call of a common man. Although, UT J&K administration has been trying its best against the spread of Corona virus by issuing various directions, but few officers on ground in Poonch and Rajouri districts are unable to implement the same due to lack of planning and coordination, but prefer to show only arrogance before the public. Principal Secretary Rohit Kansal and Director Information Sehrish Asgar, under the full supervision of Lieutenant Governor and Chief Secretary, have continuously been giving every information related to Corona through twitter handle and by sharing with print and electronic media regularly for the information of citizens. Reportedly, Div Com Jammu, DC Jammu and DC Srinagar are doing their best on Corona issue, but the same zeal is missing in Rajouri and Poonch administration and this concern, if not addressed properly by UT administration, will prove lethal in near future. Failure of Poonch administration on various accounts has become a talk of the town. Rather than wagging the dog, Poonch administration needs to show its merit on the ground by applying wisdom on Corona issue rather than beating around the bush by becoming paper tiger only.
