Political Correspondent
JAMMU: The PDP-BJP ragtag Coalition Government and certain anti-Jammu elements in the BJP-led NDA Government in Delhi are, it appears, hatching a conspiracy to scuttle the ongoing movement in Jammu province for the establishment of the sanctioned AIIMS in Jammu. They are using “a pliable section of print media” to defeat the movement, which is being spearheaded by the AIIMS Coordination Committee under its Chairman Abhinav Sharma, who is also President of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Jammu.
They are planting stories to create an impression that the Government of India would soon announce another AIIMS so that both the regions are satisfied. Media stories in this regard have also been seeking to make the people of Jammu province to understand that not one, but two AIIMS campus, would be established, one each in Jammu region and Kashmir Valley. The authorities in New Delhi would soon make an announcement to this effect, two media reports have said, adding the announcement could be made on 23rd June, the day founder of Jan Sangh Shyama Prasad Mookerjee sacrificed his life in Srinagar to get Jammu and Kashmir integrated into India politically, constitutionally and economically. The people of Jammu province are not convinced by what they call “planted stories”. They say, and rightly so, that “anti-Jammu forces have ganged up to weaken the AIIMS movement using dubious means” and that “they would not walk into their trap”.
Earlier, MoS in the PMO Jitendra Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh had also tried to divert the people’s attention away from the issue by stating that the AIIMS will be established first in Jammu. The people of Jammu didn’t pay any heed to what they said. Their argument was that they had “no power” to take a decision on the AIIMS issue. They argued that they would review their stand only after the Prime Minister or the Union Finance Minister or the Union Health Minister make statements that the AIIMS will be established in Jammu. They could also review their stand if Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who is head of the J and K Government, announced that the AIIMS will be established in Jammu, they have also said.
Why wait for 23rd June? Why not to make announcement before 12th June, when the AIIMS Coordination Committee would launch hunger strike for an indefinite period to make the adamant authorities to read writing on the wall in Jammu. The Coordination Committee members have started crisscrossing parts of Jammu province to enlist the people’s support to the ongoing movement in Jammu. Yesterday, they toured two districts – Kathua and Samba – and held meetings with those who matter and sought their support. The response, according to the Coordination Committee members was “overwhelming”. Sources close to the Coordination Committee reveal that “senior members of the Coordination Committee would tour Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Udhampur, Reasi, Rajouri and Poonch Districts to
educate public against the anti-Jammu and anti-national forces and motivate them to join the ongoing movement in large numbers”.
“The authorities would do well to take cognisance of the developing situation in Jammu province. The best thing for them to do would be to honour the Union Finance Minister’s 28th February Lok Sabha statement and establish the proposed AIIMS in Jammu. The people of Jammu province, it is manifestly clear, will not accept anything short of this. They will not object if another AIIMS is sanctioned and set up in Kashmir,” said a CC member while talking to STATE TIMES.
