Reconsider hike

The fresh hike of community hall charges in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, has put a question mark over the government’s move amidst the promises of providing a helping hand to the people in need. The congested localities in Srinagar are massively dependent on these marriage or community halls, which have been constructed at different places with an aim to help the locals to host the guests during marriage ceremonies or during the funeral and other related occasions. Interestingly, these community halls are now becoming unaffordable for the people, thus could diminish the cause behind the construction of these facilities. One fails to understand why the hike has been made at a time when the government assures to provide relief to the people in need. In Srinagar’s Old City areas, these facilities are the only hope for thousands of families, who prefer to book the halls during funeral, marriage and other occasions. But, as the hike has been announced, the people have started criticizing the move, indicating that it has left them with no option to avoid using such facilities. Therefore, any such move is not only going to affect the people, but would also diminish the cause for which these facilities were constructed. The government at this juncture needs to look into the matter and ensure that the community halls are not made unaffordable to the people, which would end up in the losses as well. The people living in congested localities of Srinagar, should be given special concession, given the lack of proper space in the residential areas, so that they could heave a sigh of relief.