PM Modi to lay foundation stone of AIIMS in Haldwani on December 30: Uttarakhand CM

DEHRADUN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of an AIIMS in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani on December 30. Announcing this at a public meeting in Gangolihat, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said it will be the second AIIMS for Uttarakhand after the one at Rishikesh.

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Dhami said he was grateful to the prime minister for accepting his request for opening an AIIMS for people of Kumaon region, for whom going all the way to AIIMS, Rishikesh, for treatment is difficult.

Dhami, who was in Gangolihat to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of development projects worth nearly Rs 23 crore, said under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, projects worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore have been cleared for the state over the past five years. Kedarnath has been reconstructed with a statue of Adi Guru Shankaracharya unveiled on his rebuilt Samadhi by the prime minister recently, he said. Badrinath is also being reconstructed in accordance with his vision and Rs 29 crore have been sanctioned for a DPR on the long-awaited Tanakpur-Bageshwar rail line, Dhami said.

Dhami also spoke of the decisions taken by his cabinet after he took over as "Mukhya Sevak", saying it had taken around 700 decisions for the development and welfare of people of the state.

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"People often tell me I got little time to perform. I think I must devote all time at my disposal the service of the 1.25 crore people of the state,” he said. He also flayed the Congress for installing cut-outs of the country's first CDS Gen Bipin Rawat at a rally in Dehradun, saying the party had once called him a "streetside hooligan" and asked for proof of the surgical strikes.