KO Photo By Abid Bhat
THE inauguration of tulip garden is being celebrated on big scale this year, the event is to be held on 3 and 4th April, it is a starry affair as several famous Bollywood and local singers are expected to perform there. The event will be will commence in the afternoon on both the days, it is shocking that this event is being conducted with such pomp during a time when cases are surging again. Jammu and Kashmir recorded 515 new cases on 2 April and this number is alarming, the absence of restrictions and uptick in tourism being blamed for it. These remarks by experts have stirred a debate on whether tourism should be halted or not. While it is important to boost tourism in the valley, it shouldn’t come at a cost of human lives, some amount of restrictions are necessary from preventing shutting down of tourism altogether. While allowing tourist flocking is still understandable, organising such a mega event is baffling and inexplicable. Even if the authorities deemed it necessary to organise such a mega event it should have been conducted over a period of several days, limiting the number of people on each day would have enabled the government have some control over the situation and minimise the risk of people contracting covid. By being so callous with regard to covid protocols at a time when there is a terrifying a uptick of covid cases the government is steering the state towards a disaster. The expected performances of singers like Badshah and Mika Singh have created a buzz already and there is an expected footfall of 400 people. The government has emphasised that all Sop’s will be strictly followed but doing merely that doesn’t solve the problem that the government is itself creating. A conglomeration of such a huge crowd means that there will suspension of aerosols in the air and that makes it a high risk zone even if all the precautions are taken which is quite unlikely. At time when government should caution people against attending unnecessary social events, it is amusing to see it itself organising one.
Samina Rahim
Saminar@rediffmail
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