DOES IT MATTER?
Financial situation is so bad in Jammu and Kashmir especially in Kashmir valley that it is very difficult to see whether it matters or not that life is normal or under lockdown.
It was recently summed up by a Kashmiri trader when he was asked about the prospectus of business picking up after the district authorities of Srinagar eased restrictions. His answer was perhaps answered to many questions. When he said does it matter?
The Kashmir business community is suffering from the last ten months and we are continuously under disruptive life. Though, many trade organizations in the recent past met the Union Home Minister and Union Finance minister and MoS PMO regarding the losses faced by the traders. They have brought into their notice about the challenges being faced by the business community in Kashmir.
They were expecting good results from those meetings but the COVID situation washed it all. Now the Kashmir business community has all eyes on the central government as they have been excluded even from the Covid-19 financial package while their losses have piled up in the past ten months.
In such a situation Kashmir business is in tatters and it is only the immediate financial packages from the central government which can come to the rescue of business in Kashmir otherwise the traders feel that they would perish under a debt trap. If the central government will not come to their rescue in the coming weeks, it would be all over for the business community in Kashmir.
