Jammu gets raw deal: Sgr allotted four times more land for medicity

Contrary to the Jammu and Kashmir government’s slogan of ‘equitable development’ to both the regions of the union territory- the Jammu region has been doled out another obnoxious dose of discrimination viz-a-viz Kashmir region in respect to establishments medi-cities.

Jammu has got a raw deal in the establishment of medi-cities as compared to the Kashmir region which has been allocated four times more land for the establishment of healthcare facilities.

Industries and Commerce Department in its latest order regarding establishment of medi-cities in Jammu and Kashmir has sanctioned only 100 kanals land of JKI at Miransahib, Jammu against about four times more land in Kashmir-which is 368kanal 16 marla land of Industries and Commerce Department at Sempora in Pampore.
In fact none other union home minister Amit Shah during his visit to J&K in October had said “Jammu and Kashmir is in the heart of PM Modi,” adding that Jammu will no longer suffer discrimination. He also said that the “time of injustice to residents of Jammu is over now”, while pointing out that the region has borne the “brunt of discrimination” for years together.

Locals have been alleging a “huge regional bias” in the recruitments made by the government for the last three years which revealed “abysmally low share of Jammu region dropping to mere three to four per cent as compared to the Kashmir valley”.

Another point of discrimination with Jammu is the decision of the government to install 80,000 smart electricity meters in Jammu as against the 35000 in Kashmir province. The establishment of the toll plazas at Ban Nagrota, Sarore and now at Akhnoor is the height of discrimination with Jammu and these tool plazas are looting the public and they need to be abolished for the benefit of the people. The jammuites are bearing the brunt of these discriminatory steps.

In several select lists issued by PSC and SSB, the youth of Jammu region got hardly 8-10% share. The last few years witnessed these youth engaged in spree of protests outside recruitment agencies with none to even listen to their grievances. All 10,000 posts of SPOs sanctioned by GOI were given to Kashmir and it was only after protests Jammu region got a few hundred posts of SPOs.

Few days back, the Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha approved the proposal of Industries and Commerce Department to establish two medi-cities, one each at Sempora, Pampore and Miransahib, Jammu.

The government claimed that the decision was aimed at strengthening the health services in the Union Territory and support recovery and disaster resilience in calamity prone areas by increasing Government’s capacity to promptly respond to emergency situations.’