AIIMS to come up in Jammu "first": Union Minister

An AIIMS will be set up in Jammu before any other part of the state, Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh asserted today, seeking to put a lid on the controversy in view of reports that the medical institute might be set up in Srinagar first.
"I want to clarify one thing before you. AIIMS will definitely be set up in Jammu and no such institute will come up in any part of the state unless and untill AIIMS is set up first in Jammu," he said at a press conference held as a part of "Saal Ek Shuruaat Anek" campaign.

"You will see to it and you will realize it. We are not against setting up of AIIMS in any part of the state but it will not come up before the AIIMS is set up in Jammu," said Singh, who is a senior BJP leader from Jammu.
He was seeking to put a lid on the controversy in the wake of reports that AIIMS could be set up in Kashmir before Jammu.
"Some people are trying to fish in the troubled waters but we are committed to the people of Jammu and we will fulfill the commitment made to them", he said.

He asserted that "we will not get AIIMS issue hijacked by those who detrimental to the interests of Jammu as we have fought over the issue past several decades in opposition."

Hitting out at Congress for raking up the AIIMS issue, Singh referred to the Super Speciality Hospital in Jammu, and said, "what for has this building come up? The foundation for AIIMS was laid 10 years ago during Vajpayee government when Sushma Swaraj was the Union Health Minister."
After the change of guard at the Centre, the Congress government did not carry the project forward and the building was later converted into Super Speciality Hospital, he said.

"The history of struggle for AIIMS is very old. It goes to the period of late 1960s when medical college Srinagar was set up and later after the struggle by people of Jammu, a medical college was also set up along with Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in 1975 as SKIMS was itself an AIIMS type institute", he said.