JAMMU: The AIIMS Coordination Committee (ACC) on Sunday threatened to launch a massive agitation if government failed to take action on the issue of setting up the premier medical institute in Jammu region before 21st July.
“The people of Jammu must prepare themselves to start a relentless and result oriented movement after 21st July in case the PDP-BJP Coalition Government fails to honour the 18th June written agreement,” ACC Chairman Abhinav Sharma said.
The Deputy Chief Minister and other ministers of the State had on 18th June given a written assurance to the committee that they “shall obtain appropriate order in this regard from Government of India by or before 20th July,” he said.
“We have crossed just the first hurdle. There are many more hurdles yet to be crossed. Hence, it is imperative on the part of all of us to use the available time for mobilisation across Jammu region,” the ACC chairman said.
“We cannot afford to go complacent just because we have got a written commitment from the BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister and Forest and Social Welfare Minister,” Sharma said.
Stressing that people of Jammu region have suffered a lot because of complacency, he said, “We have to be alert and in an agitation mood to avert the possibility of the Kashmir-centric authorities cheating yet again the people of Jammu region.”
Sharma also pooh-poohed the claim of certain vested interests who had been striving to the hilt to confuse the general public by giving them understanding that the ACC was the creation of certain defeated political parties.
“The ACC was non-political organization and it shall remain so because the people of the region have lost their faith in the political parties. The people of Jammu region extended their fullest possible support to the ACC because it was rightly considered a non-political formation committed to serving their cause”, he said. Sharma appealed to the people of Jammu region to remain cautious and get united to achieve the ultimate goal of establishing AIIMS in Jammu.
The ACC chairman, who is also the President of J and K High Court Bar Association, Jammu, said all the constituents of the committee have endorsed the agreement between ACC and the State ministers.
“Not a single constituent out of its nearly 100 constituents opposed the decision,” he said.
Sharma said the AIIMS Coordination Committee would use the time till 21st July to inform people at district, Tehsil and village level about the “discrimination against the people of Jammu”.
“The people are aghast with the anti-Jammu policies and shifting of AIIMS from Jammu to Srinagar is the test of the limit of their patience,” he said.
Senior Vice-President Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), Sham Langer, Vijay Kumar Sharma, General Secretary, All J and K Transport Union, Narayan Singh, President, Amar Kashtriya Rajput Sabha, B.S Slathia, former president Bar Association, Jammu, Advocate K.K Pangotra, Chairman Legal and Human Rights Department JKPCC, K.B Jandial (Retd IAS), Prof Hari Om and Shashi Verma, Working President J and K Vishav Karma Sabha, Advocate Sukhdev Singh Sambyal, President District Samba Bar Association, Inderjeet Khajuria, President, All Jammu Hotels and Lodges Association, M.S Katoch, Working President, JPPF, Kuldeep Singh, Secretary, Kathua Bus Union, Dheeraj Pargal, Senior Vice President, Lower Raghunath Bazar Association, Rajesh Gupta, President Ware House Traders Welfare Association, Ramesh Kumar Tak, President Shopkeepers Association, Bus Stand, Bansi Lal Sodhi General Secretary, Special Tourist Taxi Association, TRC, Jammu, Dr C.L Gupta and Rajiv Chuni, Chairman SoS were also present.