By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 11 Aug: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who is on a two day tour to the national capital, made a courtesy call on Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, today. He urged the Home Minister to recommend setting up of a second All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the state’s Kumaon division. Dhami said that a recommendation from the Union Home Ministry level would go a long way towards making this a reality.
It may be recalled that Garhwal division already has an AIIMS set up in Rishikesh that is already functional. The Chief Minister also urged the Union Home Minister to recommend an Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Dehradun. He also asked that the Ministry of Railways set up a Tanakpur-Bageshwar broad gauge railline in view of its strategic importance.
Dhami briefed Shah that, even after having an AIIMS in Rishikesh, the people from the hill areas of Kumaon were still deprived of super-speciality health services due to distance and geographical challenges. With an AIIMS in Kumaon division, world class medical facilities could be made available to the citizens of the division as well as those of neighbouring districts in Uttar Pradesh. Dhami stated that the land for AIIMS in Kumaon would be made available by the Uttarakhand Government. He further pointed out that in the past, too, two world class institutes like AIIMS had been established in one state.
The Chief Minister said that the Government of India had been already requested to approve the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research. For this, free land had already been arranged in Dehradun district. The Chief Minister requested the Union Home Minister’s support in this regard.
Sources added that some political discussions were also held between the two leaders and the context was the upcoming state assembly election in Uttarakhand.
Also present on this occasion were Additional Principal Secretary to CM, Abhinav Kumar, Resident Commissioner Dr BVRC Purushottam, Special Secretary to CM, Dr Parag Madhukar Dhakate.
