Buoyed by the "encouraging feedback" from parents following the opening of the primary schools in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, the government has announced that it will also open middle schools in several areas.
Schools, colleges and offices were shut for 15 days in the Valley, in the wake of elaborate security arrangements put in place by the Centre following the abrogation of Article 370.
Taking a major step to restore normalcy, the government decided to open primary classes in a phased manner in the Valley from Monday. All schools in Jammu were opened last week.
Speaking to reporters in Srinagar on Tuesday, Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary (Planning and Development), Jammu and Kashmir, said, "Yesterday we took the decision to open primary schools. Today as we have reviewed the situation and we have noticed encouraging feedback from parents. Keeping in view the requests it has been decided to open middle schools in the area where primary schools were opened yesterday."
He said that while the students' attendance on Monday was not very high, it improved on Tuesday.
"Yesterday was the first day when we had taken a decision to open primary schools across all districts of Kashmir. We did start that and there were staff members as well as students who attended, though the students' attendance was not very high," Kansal said.
"Today as we have reviewed the position, we have noticed a considerable improvement in attendance of children and encouraging feedback and requests from parents," he added.
Giving an account of the status of restrictive measures, he said 50 out of 111 police stations in Kashmir have no day-time restrictions.
Government offices have opened, they are reporting more than normal attendance, he said.
"We have reports of normal functioning from 12 out of 22 districts. Out of 197 total police stations in Jammu and Kashmir, 136 have no day time restrictions. In Kashmir valley alone 50 out of 111 police station limits have no day time restriction," he said.
He claimed that out of 96,000 total landline connections, 73,000 are now working and rest will be restored soon.
"Landline connectivity will be fully restored, we are working on that. We will try to open all landline as soon as possible," Kansal said.
He said there were also reports of inter-district traffic movement on Tuesday and assured that there is no shortage of essential commodities anywhere.
Rs 800 crore money was withdrawn from ATMs in the last 12 days, he said.
