Rewari: Speculation ends, no foundation laying ceremony of AIIMS on September 23

Ravinder Saini

Rewari, September 17

The foundation stone of the much-awaited AIIMS project here will not be laid on September 23 as being speculated by local residents since Union Minister Rao Inderjit called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month and invited him to lay the foundation of the project on that day.

Tender process yet to be finalised

Naresh Sharma, media coordinator of Rao Inderjit, said since the tender process for the execution of the AIIMS project was yet to be finalised, the PM’s Office has decided to lay the stone after the tender process, which is likely to be completed by October.

Rao’s media coordinator has cited technical reasons for not holding the ceremony. However, the AIIMS Sangharsh Samiti has blamed BJP’s internal politics in Ahirwal region, which comprises Rewari, Mahendragarh and Gurugram districts, for the delay in commencement of the work.

People were expecting that Rao Inderjit would organise a mega function in Rewari on Shaheedi Divas (September 23) for the foundation laying ceremony. “A war of taking credit of the project between two factions of the BJP in Ahirwal is leading to inordinate delay in execution of the project. After sometime, now the BJP leaders belonging to the anti-Rao faction may try to get time from the PM for laying the foundation of the project to take credit for it,” opined a member of the AIIMS Sangharsh Samiti.

He maintained everyone in the region was quite hopeful that the project would take off on September 23 but the delay had again left everyone disappointed. “Now, it seems that the foundation laying ceremony will be organised near to Lok sabha polls so that the BJP could get its political mileage at that time,” he predicted.

Naresh Sharma, media coordinator of Rao, told The Tribune that since the tender process for the execution of the AIIMS project was yet to be finalised hence the Prime Minister Office had decided to lay the foundation stone after the tender process which was likely to be completed by October.

Notably, the state government had already bought around 200 acres for the AIIMS project in Majra-Bhalkhi village here for the execution of the project. Significantly, the district administration had also started preparations for the proposed foundation stone laying ceremony of the project on September 23 without any official information from the PMO in this regard.