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| AIIMS was always meant for Jammu says Dr Jitendra | | SPOs, VDCs salary hike order issued 6 months ago | | 
Early Times Report
Kathua, Apr 25: In a latest twist in ongoing row of AIIMS Jammu, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS -PMO, , Dr Jitendra Singh today said that right from the beginning, the demand for All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was always meant for Jammu and was inspired by the realization that there was a huge regional imbalance of health care services between Kashmir and Jammu.
"There was an urgent need to set up an AIIMS in Jammu. It was primarily with this motivation that the Central government was approached by some of us with the demand to sanction an AIIMS for Jammu," he added.
Addressing a meeting at the newly opened constituency office here today in Kathua, he while putting the record straight, Dr Singh said, the proposal for an AIIMS was earlier also mooted during the NDA rule when Atal Behari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister and Sushma Swaraj was Union Health Minister, but the proposal was not seriously carried forward during the following 10 years of UPA rule.
"Therefore, he said, the sanction of an AIIMS was, in fact, a logical culmination of the process that had got unduly stalled and hence, soon after the presentation of the Union Budget on 28th February, Dr Singh had hailed the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for having sanctioned an AIIMS and at the same time, in his capacity as Union Minister for Development of North-Eastern Region, also thanked Jaitley for sanctioning a Film Institute for Arunachal Pradesh.
Similarly, Dr Singh recalled that soon after the formation of the new government at the Centre on 26th May last year under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he had personally approached the Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani with a requisition for IIT at Jammu and after her approval, he personally submitted the same proposal for financial allocation to the Union Finance Minister who was generous enough to make an announcement of IIT in Jammu in the very first Budget presented by him in the month of August last year.
Making a dig at those deliberately sending out contradictory signals, MoS in PMO Dr Singh said, it is ironic that the present government in the J&K State takes pride in owning the IIT for Jammu which was sanctioned six months before the birth of this coalition government, but refuses to own the AIIMS which was sanctioned just 24 hours before its birth, with the presentation of Union Budget on 28th February and swearing-in of this government on 1st March.
In the ensuing confusion, several of the other political groups and parties, which were responsible for having delayed both the IIT as well as AIIMS for Jammu, are now trying to project themselves as "holier than thou" and pleading for the cause of Jammu. Making a dig at the Congress and National Conference (NC), he said, people of Jammu need to be made aware of the sequence of events over the last 40 years which resulted in disparity in health care delivery.
He recalled that in late 1960s and early 1970s, there was a demand from Jammu to set up a Government Medical College (GMC). Following this demand, he said, the then Chief Minister G.M. Sadiq initiated the process of setting up a Government Medical College in Jammu and the process was carried forward by his successor Mir Qasim with the appointment of a nationally renowned medical teacher Dr N S Pathania as the founder Principal.
Dr Singh added there was a sudden change of government in 1975 and a National Conference-led Congress supported government took over and within few months, the then Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah used his influence with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for a proposal to set up AIIMS in Srinagar which was named as Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS). However, no such proposal of AIIMS for Jammu was ever brought up for consideration by the then State government. Thus, he said, the first major initiation to promote regional imbalance between Kashmir and Jammu in the area of healthcare service was started by the National Conference-Congress regime..
"The demand for AIIMS in Jammu is, therefore, based on sound logic, academic reasoning and ground evidence, said Dr Singh and deserves to be viewed above political lines.
As far as SPOs & VDCs are concerned, the order to double their salary was issued over six months ago and this has been reiterated time and again by the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh himself even in the presence of senior leaders and core group members of the State BJP but the issue is held up because of lack of funds and the J&K State Govt has been requested to take up the issue of release of funds with the union Finance Ministry as a priority so that the order could be implemented at the earliest.
Referring to various recent projects sanctioned for Kathua, Dr Jitendra Singh said the Ravi Project at Keediyan-Gandiyal is unique and historic for the whole nation, including the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the tenders of which are going to be floated soon.
BJP Gen Secretary (Org) Ashok Koul,MLAs Rajiv Jasrotia and Kuldeep Kumar and Distt Secretary Vijay Sharma were among others who spoke on the occasion. |
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