Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Badal on Tuesday challenged the Congress leaders of the Malwa region to clarify whether they were against establishment of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bathinda.“It is condemnable that the Punjab Congress is trying to divide the people on regional lines and ignoring the plight of the people of the Malwa region who are suffering because of lack of quality cancer treatment,” said Harsimrat.Stating that establishment of an institution like AIIMS which could offer specialised cancer treatment was the need of the hour, she said Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa and Amritsar MP Capt Amarinder Singh would be directly responsible if the project got delayed or was cancelled.
“Going by the recent statements of Congress leaders, it seems that the party is anti-Malwa. What else can explain the shrill noises being made against the project despite the fact that the Express Train taking cancer patients to Bikaner for treatment has acquired the sobriquet of Cancer Express. Do the Congress leaders want cancer patients of Malwa to die for want of treatmentIJ” she asked.Urging Congress leaders to rise above politics and reflect on the incalculable harm they would cause to Malwa’s cancer patients, Harsimrat said that she had proposed AIIMS for Bathinda on merit. “My demand is not new. I had made a similar appeal during UPA rule also. Demand was made because people in Malwa belt do not have easy access to health facilities in direct contrast to a city like Jalandhar which had the highest number of hospitals and doctors in the State,” she said.
Also making it clear that Congress statements of discrimination against other regions did not hold any water, she said: “Three mega food parks which have come up recently are not situated in my constituency. Similarly, so many projects including an IIM and a Horticulture institute have been allocated to Amritsar.”She urged the Punjab Congress leaders to reflect on their own track record. “Despite the fact that Punjab was represented by seven ministers during UPA rule, the leaders failed to get a single project to Punjab,” she said.