Cong to hold dharna over AIIMS shifting
Tuesday, 07/07/2015
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/
Jalandhar: Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira today announced that he would hold a dharna — on the shifting of AIIMS from the Doaba region to Bathinda — outside the house of Union Minister of State Vijay Sampla here on July 8.
He claimed that the CM had succumbed to the pressure of his daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal and had gone back on his promise to set up AIIMS in Doaba.
Khaira said, “This is nothing but gross discrimination with the Doaba and Majha regions. It is a matter of shame that Badal, while announcing the allocation of AIIMS by the central government, had directed the DC Kapurthala to find a suitable location for the hospital in Doaba.
“The Congress sarpanch of Ramidi village in Kapurthala even passed a resolution offering 200 acres of panchayat land free of cost for setting up AIIMS. But the CM has now retracted from his public promise and shifted the hospital to Bathinda for political considerations. He should apologise for it.”
Justifying the location for the institute in Kapurthala, the former Congress MLA pointed out, “There is no government hospital of the scale of AIIMS in the Doaba and Majha regions. The poor cannot afford treatment in the costly commercial private hospitals in Jalandhar and Amritsar.”
