AARYAN SHARMA
JAMMU: Two years ago Jammu had passionately fought for ambitious AIIMS. Two years down the line their dream is yet to take shape.
The BJP-PDP Government, despite lofty announcements, has so far failed in laying even a single brick at the approved site in Vijaypur area of Samba district.
Amid all this, a sinister design is being hatched to explore the possibility of relocating the AIIMS from Vijaypur to any other place.
Former Minister and JKPCC General Secretary Manjit Singh had recently warned the State Government against shifting the AIIMS from the proposed site in Vijaypur.
Meanwhile, on ground zero, in the past two years, the alliance government has even failed to acquire the land and hand it over to the project executing agencies.
On Thursday, when Health Minister Bali Bhagat called on Union Health Minister JP Nadda in New Delhi, he too directed the State Government to complete all modalities regarding making available land and ancillary facilities for the prestigious project of AIIMS at Jammu.
According to official sources in the State Health Department, less than 50 per cent of the total land required has been acquired by the department and awaiting completion of formalities for major chunk of land for initiating construction work on the project.
In backdrop of these developments, the State Government has also failed to set a deadline for the completion of prestigious project.
AIIMS was sanctioned for Jammu by the Union Government at the end of long struggle and indefinite strike by the AIIMS Coordination Committee in August 2015.
Ironically, in the past, an impression was created by the alliance government that it was awaiting clearance of dates on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi would visit to lay foundation stone of the ambitious project.
In reality, the project executing agency has also raised certain technical issues before starting the basic work on the allotted land. Since major chunk of the land is located on both sides of the National Highway, a major exercise is required to complete the land fill as the identified site is approximately 2-3 metres down. Secondly, because of local water bodies, the entire area has to be readied by constructing a protection wall to avoid flash floods in the AIIMS campus. Its proximity to the International Border is another security concern raised by the experts after the same was approved. Now it remains to be seen how soon the BJP-PDP alliance government would be able to start the construction work on the ambitious project and deliver on poll promises of providing better health care infrastructure to the people of the State
