After Jammu bandh over AIIMS row, Deputy CM meets Modi

Ravi S. Singh

Tribune New Service

New Delhi, April 28

Against the backdrop of public protests in Jammu over the setting up of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Kashmir, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

Nirmal was in the Capital for some official engagements, including the 27th meeting of Northern Zonal Council held on Saturday. A state government official said the Deputy Chief Minister met Modi before he left for Jammu.

Sources said the bandh observed in Jammu last week to protest allocation of AIIMS to the Valley and others issues such as problems of traders and the new recruitment policy were probably discussed by the Deputy Chief Minister and the Prime Minister.

It is, however, not clear whether Nirmal met Modi on his own or was asked to do so. The Deputy Chief Minister was not accessible despite several attempts to contact him on his cell phone.

The Sangh Parivar and its outfits along with several apolitical organisations and political parties in the Opposition had taken part in the Jammu bandh on Friday.

The Deputy Chief Minister is in the centre of the AIIMS controversy. Union Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh reportedly took a jibe at him and some BJP ministers at a public meeting in the state on Sunday for sending contradictory and misleading signals regarding the location of AIIMS.

The Deputy Chief Minister had recently said that there was no question of taking away AIIMS from Kashmir and giving it to Jammu but efforts could be made for another AIIMS for Jammu. Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has also stated that the institute will be established in Kashmir.

The BJP had received huge support in the Jammu region during the Lok Sabha elections and the subsequent Assembly elections. It won 25 of the 37 Assembly seats of Jammu province.