STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Taking a tough stand over the discriminatory policies against Jammu, AIIMS Coordination Committee (CC) on Wednesday said that people will no more tolerate the discrimination against Jammu.
Addressing a joint press conference here at Press Club Jammu in which representatives of Chamber of Commerce, Transporters, Retailer Associations and several other social organisations were also present, Chairman AIIMS Coordination Committee and President J and K High Court Bar Association Jammu Advocate Abhinav Sharma warned that don’t push Jammu to the wall adding that the people of Jammu province are fed up with the discriminatory policies and that they are no longer prepared to swallow any kind of injustice.
He said that the aggrieved people observed two massive shut downs on 24th April 2015 and 27th May 2015 across Jammu Province to protest the anti-Jammu decision to establish the proposed AIIMS in Kashmir. “The people took this extreme step hoping that biased authorities in the state and at the centre will read the writing on the wall and defuse the potentially serious situation in Jammu province by concerning their genuine demands seeking not just the establishment of AIIMS in Jammu province but also the completion of Tawi Artificial Lake project in Jammu”, he said, adding that it is disgusting that the authorities have failed to rise to the occasion, thus forcing the AIIMS Coordination Committee to intensify the agitation to defend and promote the Jammu’s genuine cause.
Abhinav further said that the patience of people of Jammu province is ending and ending very fast and the authorities will be squarely responsible if the people replicate the 1998 and 2008 like situations in Jammu. “The insensitive, unaccommodating and arrogant elements in the establishment will be responsible if the agitating people create in the province the 1998 or the 2008 like situation in Jammu”, he warned adding that things are surely moving in that direction.
“The statesmanship demands positive response to the Jammu’s genuine demands”, Sharma said, adding that authorities cannot take the people of Jammu province for a ride like before.
Underling the need for an AIIMS-like institute in Jammu Province, Sharma said that region is devoid of any modern and well-equipped medical institute and that the people of region have to go to Delhi, Chandigarh and other places for medical treatment. “It is because of absence of a modern Medical Institute in Jammu, unlike Kashmir, that Union Finance Minister announced AIIMS for Jammu on the floor of Lok Sabha”, said Sharma, adding that the people of Jammu are not against Kashmir and they are only demanding what they deserve.
“The people of Kashmir have never ever launched any movement for establishment of any institution, as their leadership was always in forefront to meet their requirements. Mercifully, the people of Jammu province launched agitation after agitation to get for their regions like University of Jammu, Medical College, Engineering College, Dental College, Agriculture University and Central University”, rued Sharma adding that the anti-Jammu authorities have once again forced the people to take agitational path to get their demands fulfilled.
He further said that a candle light protest procession in Jammu on 5th June 2015 would be a message for the authorities and in case they failed to assuage the hurt feeling of Jammu after that, the next step would be Dharnas in front of houses of Ministers and MLAs besides their Gherao.
