Committed towards setting up of AIIMS in Jammu: BJP

The party three-day bandh call from June 19 as an attempt by some "vested elements" to mislead the public

Reiterating its commitment towards the establishment of AIIMS in Jammu, BJP today termed the three-day bandh call from June 19 as an attempt by some "vested elements" to mislead the public and disturb the situation ahead of the upcoming Amarnath yatra in the state.

"We express surprise over the 72-hour bandh call given by AIIMS Coordination Committee. There is no logic in it as Union Minister Jitendra Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh have announced that AIIMS will be set up in Jammu before it is established in any other part of the state," BJP state chief and MP Jugal Kishore Sharma said in a statement here tonight.

Claiming that some vested elements were trying to mislead people on the AIIMS issue, he said, "Those spreading canards about BJP are trying to mislead the public at the behest of those politicians who were rejected by the masses in both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections."

"These politicians in sheer desperation are trying to disturb the situation in the state at a time when the annual Amarnath Yatra is approaching near," he said.

He said the bandh call will certainly affect the upcoming Amarnath Yatra and Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage.

"People should trust the government which is committed towards the establishment of AIIMS and completion of work on Tawi lake," he said.

On artificial lake project in river Tawi, he said Nirmal Singh and Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control announced that the lake will be completed within a year. "Both of them even visited the site to issue instructions to engineers concerned to speed up the work," he said.

Taking a dig at opposition, Jugal said instead of raising hue and cry on the AIIMS issue, these people should ask Congress and NC leaders as to why they sabotaged the upgradation of GMC to AIIMS level, the foundation stone of which was laid by the then Health Minister Sushma Swaraj.

A three-day Jammu bandh from June 19 has been called by AIIMS Coordination Committee, an apex body of civil society groups, to protest the reported move to shift a proposed unit of the premier medical institute from Jammu to Kashmir Valley.