JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party on Thursday held a protest here demanding what it called restoration of AIIMS to Jammu and revocation of the new recruitment policy of the state.
The party activists took out a procession in the town raising anti-government and anti-BJP slogans as they sought return of AIIMS for Jammu.
The march was led by JKNPP Chairman Harsh Dev Singh who has spearheaded his party’s campaign to get AIIMS restored for Jammu.
The government had announced AIIMS for Srinagar.
“JKNPP has launched a campaign for AIIMS in Jammu and is holding rallies in various district and tehsils to create awareness amongst the public about the bias perpetuated against Jammu region by the present BJP-PDP coalition,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, The State unit of Shiv Sena on Thursday asked its BJP counterparts to follow the footsteps of senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and get AIIMS sanctioned for Jammu region.
“In the tenure of UPA government, a central university was announced for Kashmir and afterwards a delegation headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and got the central university of Jammu as well,” a statement issued by Shiv Sena quoting Ashok Gupta president of state unit of Dogra Front and Shiv Sena said.
Gupta is quoted in the statement asking why the pattern of the previous government should not be followed by Jitendra Singh who is the MoS in the PMO for getting AIIMS for Jammu.
The workers of Dogra Front and Shiv Sena took out a march from Jewel Chowk to Press Club demanding AIIMS for Jammu.
“The issue of AIIMS should not be politicised. The demand is becoming more like a show of strength amongst BJP leadership,” the statement said.
Gupta said Jammu region was in greater need of AIIMS as Kashmir remains inaccessible for most parts of the winter and people in large numbers migrate to Jammu from all parts of the state to escape the harsh weather.
He said that his organisation would continue its “crusade” until AIIMS is sanctioned for Jammu.
Similarly, Hindustan Shiv Sena (HSS) staged a protest against government’s decision on shifting AIIMS to Kashmir.
The protest was led by HSS National President Dimpy Kohli and State President Vikrant Kapoor. The leaders while addressing the gathering condemned the government for its decision to shift the proposed AIIMS to Kashmir. They appealed to Prime Minster Narendra Modi for clearing the stand over the issue as several leaders of BJP have been giving divergent statements on the issue of establishing AIIMS in J and K.
Vikrant said that HSS does not oppose the setting up of this premier medical institute in Kashmir rather it wants a separate AIIMS for the people of Jammu on the lines of two Central Universities established in Jammu and the Kashmir divisions.
“Kashmir already has prestigious health institutes like Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science, Medical College and SMHS Hospital but Jammu is lagging far behind as far as health services are concerned therefore point of establishing AIIMS at Jammu is justified”, the HSS leaders maintained.
The HSS leaders said that much hyped Super Specialty Hospital in Jammu has failed to provide even the basic health related facilities and in the absence of adequate medicare facilities a huge chunk of population including Jammuites, tourists, migrant workers, secretariat staff, etc have to suffer. “It is dire need of people of this region to have AIIMS for ensuring state of art health facilities”, they added.
Other prominent leaders who were present included Youth President Vinay Gupta, Senior Vice President Rajan Gupta, Dinesh Mahajan, Rohit Singh Bhau and others.