MADAN MANTOO
JAMMU: Showing ignorance about rugged terrain and topography of Jammu and Kashmir, Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday suggested setting up of AIIMS at a centrally located place that is accessible and acceptable to both the regions of Jammu and Kashmir.
“AIIMS requires 200 acres of land which can’t be available and acquired in the twin capital cities of Jammu or Srinagar and therefore the middle-path of centrally located place on mountains can be considered”, BJP National Spokesperson and MP Meenakshi Lekhi said while talking to media here this afternoon.
The landslide prone Ramsoo to Ramban on 295 kilometer Jammu-Srinagar National Highway forms centre of the twin regions, which has hardly any plain stretch except hillocks. The highways remains closed for vehicular traffic due to landslides mostly during the winter and occasionally in monsoon during the summer.
AIIMS Coordination Committee Convener Abhinav Sharma insisted for having the AIIMS at Jammu.
When told about the suggestion put forth by the BJP National Spokesperson about its location at a centrally place between the two regions, Abhinav Sharma told STATE TIMES that since he had not gone through the full text of her statement, he can only say that “We want AIIMS for Jammu’.
To a question on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s reported announcement during his budget speech about setting up of AIIMS at Jammu, Lekhi said “When Finance Minister sanctions something for a state during his budget speech; the sanction is made for the entire state and not for one particular place.
The issue pertaining to AIIMS forms part of the Alliance of Agenda of the PDP-BJP coalition wherein it stands mentioned that the ‘super specialty’ will be set up in the Valley.
Meenakshi Lekhi elaborated on the centralised location of the AIIMS and said the people should not be made to brave the snow during winters to reach the facility. Similarly the people of the other region need not be put to inconvenience and therefore the centralised location could be considered. “Now what I personally suggest is that AIIMS should come somewhere at the centre of Jammu and Kashmir, the place which is accessible and acceptable to all the three regions of the state (including Ladakh),” she said.
The MP said that she understands the sentiments of the people of Jammu region over the issue and would convey the same to the central leadership of the party on her return to New Delhi, reports PTI.
“I can understand the sentiments of the people of Jammu when Kashmir already has a medical institute. But we must not divide it in the name of Jammu and Kashmir as it is one state and the AIIMS will come up in this state,” Lekhi said.
She said that the other way would be to upgrade the existing Jammu Medical College to the level of the medical institute.
On the BJP’s stand over the issue of abrogation of Article 370, Lekhi said that there has been no change in the ideology of her party as far as the removal of the Article from the Constitution was concerned.
“BJP has not weakened its stand on the issue, but it is not something that can be done overnight, the debate has to start from the Legislative Assembly. People need to debate and find out the pros and cons of the Article,” she said.
The MP said the people of the country and the people of the J and K must first understand what the Article has given them so far and what they have lost because of it.
To a question on the ideological differences between the ruling coalition partners in the, she said the two parties have differences of ideology but they joined hands to give good and clean governance to the people of the State.
“We don’t ask PDP to change its ideology, unless their own voters understand the two sides of the Article only then they can take a stand on this,” she said.
She said that the debate on Article 370 has already started and people in the country were free to discuss about pros and cons of its continuation.
“The issue of Article 370 was the issue of survival and existence of the party,” Lekhi said.
BJP National Spokesperson also spelled out the achievements of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the past one year.
IRONY OF J&K
What can be more ironical for J&K than the fact that politicians from Delhi or elsewhere the country, naïve about history, geography and topography of the State, keep on issuing statements which are generally far from the truth? Instead of solving problems, therefore, their statements only complicate the issues.
What can again be more ironical than the fact that the present set of Jammu politicians are either illiterate or if at all educated they are politically illiterate.
GOD SAVE JAMMU.
