Kashmir NGOs face unending SOS calls, forewarn of grimmer days ahead
The Hindu
Experts warn UT set to record over 5,000 cases per day in coming weeks
Unending SOS calls for oxygen cylinders and non-stop ringing of phones for food and medicine at the Valley-based NGOs portray a grimmer picture of the pandemic than the hospitals, where oxygen-supported beds were almost running full with infected people. Bashir Nadwi, chairman of the NGO 'throut, which operates from Srinagar city’s Nawa Kadal area, terms the pandemic “an unprecedented situation” in a place which otherwise is witness to 30 years of conflict. “I am witness to months of street agitations, worked during the 2014 floods and saw the 2005 earthquake but this is more depressing and the situation is much graver,” Mr. Nadwi, who keeps attending SOS every minute, told The Hindu at his Srinagar office.The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.