Residents want AIIMS to be set up in Pathankot

• Vinay Dhingra, Hindustan Times, Pathankot
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• Updated: Mar 11, 2015 21:17 IST

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With an aim to bring the purposed All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for Punjab to Pathankot, residents have started a campaign on a social media site.

They hoped that their drive would bear a fruit and urged various political and social organisations to join hands with them in their initiative to press the Punjab government to shift the proposed institute to Patankot.

According to residents, Pathankot shares its boundaries with two big states — Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Himachal Pardesh — and providing medical and business facilities to people coming to the town from these states. Moreover, the nature has endowed newly-formed Pathankot district with all sorts of resources and its topography is suitable for the construction of an AIIMS-like medical institute, claims locals.

Dinesh Gupta, who is leading the campaign on social media network, said Ropar already got an IIT, Mohali a cancer institute, Sangrur a satellite Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) center during the UPA regime.

“If you see small district like Kapurthala, it has a big rail coach factory, and Ludhiana has a big agriculture university, which helps in the growth of a district. Thus, the government must think of Pathankot, as such types of institutes in the town will also cater services to people not just from Punjab, but from three,” he concluded.

I lost my wife in the absence of proper medical facilities in the town, claimed Pawan Kumar, adding if the institute comes to Pathankot, such big losses would be averted. “Our leaders must exert a pressure on the state leadership to bring AIIMS here,” he concluded.

We would raise the demand for the proposed AIIMS at Pathankot before our senior leaders, said Anil Rampal Mandal, BJP district president, adding, it would not only benefit the locals, but also people coming from other states.

BD Chugh, president of Jan Jagran Manch, said: “Now, it’s the turn of our district to get the benefit as Pathankot is the seventh largest town of the state. Everybody must participate in this campaign,” he said.

Pathankot has ample of land where such type of big institutes can be set up.