AIIMS protesters’ body appoints seven additional spokespersons

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 28

Sensing intensification of the agitation, the AIIMS Coordination Committee today appointed seven more spokespersons. It appealed to the public to shut private transport as well during the 72-hour Jammu bandh from July 31.

Abhinav Sharma, chairman of the AIIMS Coordination Committee, said in a press conference here today that since the ongoing movement for AIIMS could be a long-drawn affair, the committee decided to appoint seven more spokespersons in addition to those already appointed as spokespersons.

TS Wazir, BS Slathia, Prof Hari Om Mahajan, Zorawar Singh Jamwal, Ved Prakash Sharma, Narayan Singh and Sham Lal Bassan were appointed additional spokespersons of the AIIMS Coordination Committee. They would work in consultation with the chairman so that everyone functioned in unison.

Sharma said patience of people of the Jammu region was ending very fast and if the BJP failed to appreciate their outrage and feelings before July 30, it would have to face serious consequences.

He appealed to the people to shut private vehicles as well during the Jammu bandh, which had been called by the AIIMS Coordination Committee from July 31 to August 2.

The committee will organise a candlelit protest march on Wednesday which will participation of leading civil society members drawn from all walks of life.

“People across the Jammu region will organise a three-day bandh starting from July 31. The AIIMS Coordination Committee never wanted to take such an extreme step, but the biased, vindictive and anti-Jammu forces forced us to do so to achieve AIIMS for Jammu, which was promised by none other than Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,” Sharma said.

“If they do not announce it even during the Jammu bandh, the agitation will be intensified, which can take any direction,” he added.

The manner in which the BJP surrendered AIIMS to the PDP had shocked people of the Jammu region and put them on the road of confrontation, he further said.

He added that the AIIMS Coordination Committee would rest only after it achieved its two stated goals of establishment of AIIMS in Jammu and early completion of artificial lake project over the Tawi in Jammu.

It was strange that the BJP, which was a part of the government in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time, had chosen to alienate its own constituency in the Jammu region, he said.