Setting up of AIIMS at Bathinda discrimination against Doaba: Punjab Congress

JALANDHAR: A Congress MP today opposed Punjab government's move of setting up AIIMS at Bathinda instead of Kapurthala and termed it as "discrimination against Doaba region."

"The state government is discriminating against Doaba. When the Centre had announced that AIIMS would come up in Doaba region, even land was identified for it in Kapurthala district. Congress will raise the issue in Parliament," Jalandhar MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh said.

He also said the Congress would not tolerate such a 'step motherly' treatment to the people of Doaba.

Chaudhary's remarks come a day after Punjab chief secretary Sarvesh Kaushal announced the setting up of AIIMS at Bathinda instead of Kapurthala.

"When PGI's satellite centre has been set up in Sangrur, an adjourning district of Bathinda district, what is the need to set up AIIMS in the same area," he questioned.

The institute is being shifted to Bathinda because Harsimrat Kaur Badal is an MP from there, he claimed.