Jammu Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) President Altaf Bukhari on Tuesday urged the Union Home Minister to restore high-speed mobile internet, one of the prerequisites, in taking up preventing measures against the spread of coronavirus in the union territory.
In a statement, Bukhari observed that restoration of 4G mobile internet services in J&K would enable people especially the students to remain engaged inside their homes, thereby effectively containing the global pandemic COVID-19.
“Since all the educational institutes are closed in J&K, the students have been left with no option but to remain idle in their homes which has a telling impact on their future. As COVID-19 spreads at an alarming rate, the public health officials have called for minimal public gatherings—which is pushing many activities online,” he said.
“The issue is particularly severe for schools, where the risk of spreading the disease is high. As many J&K schools have shifted to online lesson plans, home restricted students are running into the limitations of mobile internet services, which leave most of them unable to connect to their new online classrooms or download lesson plans,” Bukhari remarked.
He said that since all schools, colleges and universities are closed as a result of novel coronavirus outbreak, millions of students are missing classes, creating an ‘unparalleled’ education disruption in the region.
“Earlier our students missed classes due to disruptions created by August 5, 2019 decisions and now the novel coronavirus outbreak has posed a serious challenge to our children to cope up with their counterparts in the country who enjoy all other educational facilities including high-speed mobile internet,” Bukhari said while demanding immediate restoration of 4G mobile internet services in J&K.
Bukhari expressed hope that the restoration of high-speed mobile internet will go a long way in easing out the situation not only for the home confined youth in their pursuit of career advancement as also in their academic odyssey but for the business community and vast majority working in the private sector.