The AIIMS Coordination Committee, an amalgam of 70 organisations fighting for the establishment of AIIMS in Jammu, has extended the Jammu bandh call for another 72 hours starting Monday.
The ACC which already had succeeded in its previous 72 hours Jammu bandh after deliberating with its core organisations has decided to extend the bandh for another 72 hours citing BJP's 'total failure' in living up to the expectations of the people of Jammu.
"Since our bandh call was announced, BJP leaders like Lal Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma have been coming up with reiteration of their Union health minister JP Nadda's statement on similar facilities of AIIMS for Jammu, manipulating the faith of the people who have refused to get into their trap," said ACC chairman Abhinav Sharma while addressing the media.
He said all the stakeholders in ACC are strongly bonded to take the agitation to logical conclusion and will go to extreme end to secure separate full-fledged AIIMS for Jammu.
The ACC chairman explained that the AIIMS Act does not allow what Union health minister JP Nadda tweeted on July 30 and what the cornered BJP ministers are trying to make the people of Jammu understand. No AIIMS in India can ever have two presidents, two vice-chancellors, two governing bodies and two directors.
What they are saying is the gross violation of the Act and an act of criminal disinformation. Nowhere in India has the AIIMS been divided into two parts, two campuses because it will defeat the very purpose of the institution, he said, adding that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Amendment) Act 2012 clearly says that to establish an AIIMS in any state, it is mandatory to issue a notification clearly specifying the place and the state where AIIMS is to be established, said Abhinav Sharma.
{{/usCountry}}What they are saying is the gross violation of the Act and an act of criminal disinformation. Nowhere in India has the AIIMS been divided into two parts, two campuses because it will defeat the very purpose of the institution, he said, adding that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Amendment) Act 2012 clearly says that to establish an AIIMS in any state, it is mandatory to issue a notification clearly specifying the place and the state where AIIMS is to be established, said Abhinav Sharma.
{{/usCountry}}"Breaking AIIMS institution into parts and dispersing the parts in various parts of the state defeat the very purpose of Medical Research Institution," said Abhinav Sharma.
AIIMS has three specific components-research, medical education and healthcare facilities. The BJP ministers have only made a mockery of themselves and exposed their abject ignorance of the issue, he further said.
Meanwhile in an emergency and urgent meeting convened at Chamber House the presidents and general secretaries of all major bazars unanimously urged to CCI president Rakesh Gupta to extend the bandh by 72 hours unless and until the government produces an authentic document to support the claim of setting up of an independent AIIMS at Jammu.