Former Haryana Finance Minister and senior Congress leader Capt. Ajay Yadav on Thursday accused Minister of State (Independent) Statistics and Programme Implementation and Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh of misleading the people of south Haryana on the setting up of AIIMS in Rewari’s Manethi to seek votes.
Mr. Yadav said that Mr. Singh misled the people sitting on dharna in support of their demand for AIIMS at Manethi for four months saying that the project had been approved in the Union Budget, whereas the fact remains that the said site is a forest land. He said that not even a wall could be constructed on the site without the permission of the Supreme Court.
Khattar’s announcement
On July 4, 2015, Mr. Khattar had made an announcement at Bawal public meeting to set up an AIIMS in Manethi and wrote a letter to the Union Health Minister in this regard on July 22, 2015. However, Mr. Khattar went back on his words later saying that he had made the announcement in over enthusiasm leading to the dharna.
After four months of continuous sit-in, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced setting up of AIIMS in Haryana during his Interim Budget speech before the Lok Sabha election.
Mr. Singh assured the people that the proposed AIIMS would be set up at Manethi.
The Forest Department officials, however, recently told the State government that the Manethi site was part of a single forest patch and said that it should look for some other site for the proposed AIIMS.
The officials said that Haryana had very little forest area and the existing forest areas should not be proposed for diversion when vast non-forest areas were available.
Mr. Singh, in a statement, said, the matter was under consideration with the Union government and “we are working on it”. “The issue of land for AIIMS in Rewari will be sorted out soon.”