 Early Times Report
jAMMU, July 28: Patience of people of Jammu region is ending and ending very fast and if the BJP failed to appreciate their outraged feelings before July 30, the BJP will have to face serious consequences, said chairman of the AIIMS Coordination Committee (ACC) and president of J&K High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA), Jammu, Abhinav Sharma, while addressing a joint press conference at the office of the Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) here today.
The ACC will organize candle light protest march on Wednesday, which will be participated in by leading civil society members drawn from all walks of life. The people across Jammu region will organize three-day-long bandh starting from July 31 to make the BJP and the establishments in J&K and New Delhi see the writing on the wall.
The ACC never wanted to take such an extreme step, but the biased, vindictive and anti-Jammu forces forced us to do so to achieve AIIMS for Jammu which was promised for it by none other than Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Sharma said, adding that it was for the first time in over 67 years that something was given to Jammu without its asking, but those who promised AIIMS for Jammu in no time shifted it to Kashmir.
The manner in which the BJP surrendered AIIMS to the PDP has shocked the people of Jammu region and put them on a road to confrontation, he further said, and added that the ACC will take rest only after it achieved its two stated goals "establishment of AIIMS in Jammu and an early completion of artificial lake project over River Tawi in Jammu. It is strange that the BJP, which is in the government for the first time in J&K, has chosen to alienate its own constituency in the Jammu region.
He also said since the ongoing movement for AIIMS could be a long-drawn affair, he has decided to appoint seven more spokespersons in addition to those already appointed as ACC spokespersons.
He appointed as additional spokespersons of the ACC TS Wazir, chairman of All-J&K Transporters Welfare Association; senior advocate and former Bar Association BS Slathia; Prof Hari Om Mahajan; Zorawar Singh Jamwal, Secretary General, Press Club Jammu; Ved Prakash Sharma, president Dogra Pratinidhi Brahman Sabha; Arun Gupta, secretary general, CCI, Jammu, Narayan Singh, president of Amar Kshatriya Rajput Sabha; and Sham Lal Bassan, president of Dalit Chetna Manch.
They would work in consultation with the chairman of the ACC so that everyone functions in unison.
Abhinav Sharma expressed the view that the authorities would act before it is too late and said the BJP would be at an advantageous position if it announced an AIIMS for Jammu before the people of Jammu region go in for 72-hour-long shutdown. He also appealed to the people to reach Ambphalla Chowk, near Central Jail, on time so that the candle light march starts at 7 pm sharp.
Meanwhile, the support for ACC continued to pour in as the people of Reasi today pledged their full support for the agitation to establish AIIMS in Jammu region.
As part of its mass contact programme across Jammu region, a joint team of the AIIMS Coordination Committee (ACC) headed by senior advocate and former Bar President Bhupinder Singh Slathia and comprising of Amar Kshatriya Rajput Sabha president Narayan Singh, social activist Prof Hari Om, Panun Kashmir leader Ajay Chrungoo, president All J&K Passenger Transport Welfare Association, Devinder Chowdhary and vice-president Doordarshan Approved Artists, Madan Rangeela today toured Reasi and addressed civil society members there.
It was a largely attended meeting, organized by Vijay Sharma, president District Bar Association, Reasi, Advocate Ajay Slathia, Captain Baldev Singh, president General Zorawar Singh Memorial Committee, Daljeet Singh, secretary general Gen Zorawar Singh Memorial Committee, Tariq Bhat, Sudarshan Sharma, Beli Ram, Ved Raj Bhagat and Kewal Sharma and those who took part in the meeting offered their fullest possible support to the Jammu cause, saying Jammu, not Kashmir, deserved a full-fledged AIIMS as the region lacked even rudimentary healthcare facilities.
Speaking on the occasion, advocate Slathia said that it is a matter of grave concern that the BJP which got a massive mandate from Jammu ditched and betrayed the people of the region by transferring the sanctioned AIIMS for Jammu from Jammu to Kashmir. |
