JKNPP seeks public support for April 24 'Jammu Bandh' over AIIMS issue

JAMMU: The JKNPP today appealed to the public and all social and political organisations in the region to support the shutdown called by the party to protest the setting up of AIIMS in Kashmir instead of Jammu.

The Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) had yesterday called for a 'bandh' in Jammu region on April 24 to protest over the AIIMS issue.

"We appeal to all political and social organizations besides the public in general to support the call for 'Jammu Bandh' on April 24, the day on which the secretariat is scheduled to close in Jammu for Durbar move," JKNPP chairman Harsh Dev Singh told reporters here.

Flanked by JKNPP president and former MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia and former minister Yash Paul Kundal, Singh said the party's crusade against the "anti-Jammu" and "anti-youth" policies of the BJP-PDP coalition government will continue.

"We will fight tooth and nail against any kind of discrimination doled out to this region," he said.

JKNPP has organised several demonstrations at various district and tehsil headquarters over the issue besides holding rallies and courting arrest in New Delhi.

Singh said the party has decided to intensify the campaign by creating awareness among different sections of the society regarding the "highly submissive and docile posture" adopted by BJP in the face of its "highly aggressive" coalition partner PDP which, he claimed, has been implementing its Kashmir-centric agenda at the cost of Jammu region.

"The recent Assembly session witnessed the spineless Jammu-based legislators and ministers obediently succumbing to the diktats of their Kashmir counterparts on all issues including that of AIIMS quite unmindful and deliriously oblivious of the lofty promises made by them during the Assembly Elections to their gullible electorates," he alleged.

Earlier, JKNPP activists, led by Singh, carried out a procession from Dogra Chowk to City Chowk to demand the setting up of AIIMS in Jammu.

Addressing a massive gathering at City Chowk, Singh accused both the Centre and the state governments of shifting the prestigious Rs 1600 crore AIIMS project to Kashmir for "mere crumbs of power".