Srinagar, June 25: Jammu and Kashmir Education Minister Sakina Itoo on Thursday ruled out any immediate summer vacation for schools in the valley, saying a decision will be taken only next month as the current weather does not warrant a closure.
“The weather is fine now. We will think about summer vacations in July,” Minister Itoo told reporters, while as students and parents have been demanding an early break amid rising temperatures.
Her remarks came against the backdrop of a heat spell which in the past two days have seen rising temperatures.
Meanwhile, during her visit to Tral National conference senior leader and Jammu and Kashmir’s health and education minister Sakina Itoo used the occasion to mount a robust defence of the chief minister Omar Abdullah government, ticking off a list of promises made and delivered since assuming office.
“If you talk about old-age widow pension, we said we have increased it. We said we will increase marriage assistance, we did that. We said we will give free bus service for sisters, we have given that. We said we will change the academic session, we did that. We said free education is already being implemented, the process is going on,” she asserted.
Minister Itoo said that the administration has moved beyond announcements to ground-level implementation, claiming that accountability, which was missing earlier, has now been enforced across departments.
“Look, the opponents cannot see all this. Whatever the government has done, the government is doing its work and, God willing, in the next 19 months, apart from the implementation on the ground, every department has been made accountable. Earlier, there was no accountability here. Today, work is being done on infrastructure and in the road sector. Many schemes of PHE were closed; today, they have been opened. So much work has been done in the PDD department. Work is being done at every level,” she said.
The minister highlighted the government’s focus on the health sector, acknowledging the challenges faced but insisting that significant progress has been made. “Since we have taken over the government led by Omar Abdullah, we have started from zero in the health sector, education sector and other sectors. There are difficulties and problems, but this government has solved these problems to a large extent,” she stated.
Detailing recruitment efforts, Minister Itoo said 509 new doctors were appointed and sent to remote areas earlier, and another 426 have now been recruited, with their CID verification underway. “After that, those 400-450 doctors have also been sent to remote areas,” she added.
On paramedical staff, she noted that 626 recruitment references have been made to ensure that equipment installed does not go unused for want of operators. “I am sure that when they will be selected, so that in these areas, where there is a problem of staff, if we install equipment there, there will be no one to run it. There will be no doctor there until all these things are completed. And we are trying,” she said.
Minister Itoo cited the expansion of dialysis services as a major achievement, saying patients no longer have to travel all the way to Srinagar’s SMHS or GMC hospitals. “We have started dialysis at every district level in 19 districts. Because every kidney failure patient had to come to SMHS or GMC. But we have tried to make it available at the district level, at the tehsil level, at the doorsteps, so that the patient does not have any problem,” she said.
She said, this government is for all of us, for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Whether those who voted or those who did not vote, everyone is very important to us. And until our health is not good, in the health sector, this sector is considered the most important sector,” she added.
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