JAMMU: The ongoing agitation for AIIMS in Jammu got a boost with Coordination Committee, an amalgamation of various civil society groups spearheading agitation, rejecting Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s invitation for a meeting.
Chairman of AIIMS Coordination Committee, Abhinav Sharma, while addressing a gathering at the site on the third day of hunger strike at Tawi Bridge here on Sunday, said that the civil society meeting had been called by the Chief Minister to draw away the spirit and inspiration of the agitating people of Jammu Province.
He said “The people are politically too mature that no one can fool them.”
He expressed gratitude to Jammu Adhikar Manch, Jammu State Morcha, Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Foundation, Rural Women Empowerment Association and Doordarshan Approved Drama Artists Association for their support to the ongoing movement for the promotion of Jammu cause to mount pressure on the insensitive and anti-Jammu authorities for establishing the sanctioned AIIMS in Jammu.
Acknowledging wholehearted support offered by the people of Jammu, Abhinav assured that he will come upto their expectations come what may.
Those who sat on hunger strike included CCI President Rakesh Gupta, Senior Vice-President CCI, Sham Lal Langer, Vice President Deepak Aggarwal, Secretary General CCI, Arun Gupta, Member CCI, Rajesh Gupta, Chairman Transport Welfare Association and Member CCI, Trilochan Singh Wazir, President Shri Amar Kashtriya Rajput Sabha and member CCI, Narayan Singh, General Secretary, Ware House Traders Association, Deepak Gupta, CCI Member Sanjay Langer and Ravi Mahajan, Senior Member CCI.
President CCI, Rakesh Gupta, also lambasted the biased authorities in the State and at the Centre for their hostile attitude towards the reasonable demands of the people of Jammu Province and warned them of serious consequences in case they continue to test the patience of the grossly ignored and politically neglected masses of Jammu region. He said the Coordination Committee has been agitating since 19th May to persuade the authorities to address the aspiration of Jammu poeple before it is too late.
The CCI President further stated that the authorities are willfully pushing the people of Jammu region to the wall to appease their constituency in the valley at the cost of other regions of the State. He said that the AIIMS Coordination Committee is irked over the stunned silence of the BJP leadership including its Ministers who are simply dancing to the tunes of their Kashmiri masters without realizing the damage they are causing to their own long term political interests. He said it is highly abominable that the party which the people of Jammu region voted for in large numbers ditched them after winning 25 seats and becoming part of the valley centric power structure in the state. The people of Jammu region will not forgive the BJP for the sin it has committed by subverting the Jammu’s historic mandate to appease the valley leadership.
The CCI President also said that the Coordination Committee members, who are backed to the hilt by all, barring the BJP and its coalition partner, will leave no stone unturned to achieve their two immediate goals viz establishment of AIIMS in Jammu and early completion of artificial lake on river Tawi.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Retd Sessions Judge and Chairman JPPF, Pavitar Singh, Madan Dogra, Retd Chief Engineer, M.S Katoch, Bishan Singh Jamwal, Aashiq Hussain, Shia Federation, eminent Doordarshan artists Janak Raj Khajuria, Uttam Singh, Madan Rangila, Vinod Saini, Manjeet Singh, Manmohan Singh, Ex-president Raghunath Bazar Association, Kewal Sharma and Mukand Lal Sharma, President J and K Pensioners Association.