Greater
Kashmir: Jammu: Monday, 16 November 2015.
National
Panthers Party (NPP) Chairman, Harsh Dev Singh today raised doubts over the
‘authenticity’ of the central assistance package announced by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi for J&K, saying the package has failed to appropriately
address the grievances of Jammu province. While speaking at a press conference
here, Harsh said: “Ambiguity still exists with regards to AIIMS and Smart City
project for Jammu in the PM’s package”.
Hailing the
provision of Rs. 4000 crores (Rs. 2000 crores each for Jammu and Kashmir
Valley) in the package for two AIIMS, he said that that this capital would be
spent on raising the ‘brick and mortar’ structure of the health edifices but a
full fledge AIIMS with a recurring expenditure of Rs. 300 crores per annum
could not be established unless it was notified in the Gazette of India as per
AIIMS Act.
Suspecting
uncertainty over the issue, he disclosed that RTI filed by the Panthers Party
earlier seeking the details regarding the establishment of AIIMS in Jammu
region categorically said that only one AIIMS had been sanctioned for J&K
State as per AIIMS Act and no such information existed in the concerned office
of the Union Ministry of Health pertaining to AIIMS for Jammu.
On fund
allocation for smart city project, he said that each Smart City would cost Rs.
960 crores. “How come two smart cities could be realized with the paltry
allocation of Rs. 500 crores for five years in the atrocious package”, he asked.
Expressing
shock over PM “failing to redress the grievances of West Pak and PaK refugees
of 1947”, Harsh Dev Singh assailed Modi for not paying heed to their long
pending demands.
He dubbed the
provision for the refugees in the package as ‘peanuts’ “which had only rubbed
the salt on their wounds”.
Expressing
his resentment over the package “which had nothing to offer to the unemployed
youth of the State”, Singh said that the menace of unemployment was rampant
while thousands of daily wagers and contractual employees working in PHE, PWD,
PDD, etc including NYC volunteers, temporary teachers, ReT teachers, etc have
been on the roads protesting for their genuine demands related to their
salaries and regularization of services. He claimed that their hopes were
belied when PM Modi’s package failed to espouse “Achey Din” for them.
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