May be ready by Oct, to get 4th MBBS batch
Vitasta Festival of Kashmir will unite countrymen
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 28: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today reviewed the progress for construction of two All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Jammu and Kashmir and five other places across the country while chairing 42nd edition of PRAGATI, the ICT-based multi-modal platform for pro-active governance and timely implementation involving Centre and State/UT Governments.
Two AIIMS have been coming up at Vijaypur in Samba district and Awantipora in Pulwama district in J&K. October has been set as timeline for completion of the building of AIIMS Jammu. Some faculty has already been engaged while non-faculty posts have been referred to the concerned departments.
Three batches of MBBS have joined while fourth will be inducted this year at Jammu AIIMS.
An official statement said the Prime Minister reviewed progress of the projects for construction of AIIMS at Vijaypur in Samba district of Jammu, Awantipora in Pulwama district of Kashmir besides Rajkote, Bibinagar, Madurai, Rewari and Darbanga.
In the meeting, 12 key projects were reviewed. Among the 12 projects, seven projects were from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, two projects were from the Ministry of Railways and one project each was from Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.
These projects have a cumulative cost of over Rs. 1,21,300 crore and relate to 10 States viz., Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Haryana and 2 UTs including Jammu and Kashmir & Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
During the interaction, the Prime Minister also reviewed ‘PM SVANidhi Scheme’. He urged the Chief Secretaries to identify and cover all the eligible street vendors in urban areas especially in Tier II and Tier III cities. He also instructed that a drive be carried out to encourage digital transactions by street vendors in a mission mode and to give benefits of all the Government schemes to family members of SVANIdhi beneficiaries through SVANidhi se Samriddhi campaign.
The PM congratulated all the Chief Secretaries for having organised successful G20 meetings. He urged them to maximize the benefits from these meetings for their States, especially for the promotion of tourism and export.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today described as “wonderful initiative” the holding of Vitasta Festival in Kashmir last week which was inaugurated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the presence of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Union Minister of State for Culture Meenakshi Lekhi while the concluding function was joined by Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit and Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi.
Tagging series of tweets by Amrit Mahotsav on the festival, Narendra Modi tweeted that `Vitasta–The Festival of Kashmir’ showcased rich culture, arts and crafts of Kashmir.
“Many Many congratulations for this wonderful moment. Vitasta–The Festival of Kashmir held after several years helped people across the country to know culture and tradition of Jammu and Kashmir but this event is also a wonderful attempt to unite the countrymen,” Modi said in his tweet.
Vitasta Festival was organized to take rich art, culture, literature, craft and cuisine of Kashmir to the whole country.
The series of these programmes, which started from Chennai in Tamil Nadu, ended in Srinagar in which the youth showed enthusiasm to know the Kashmiri culture.
Many events like workshops, art installation camps, seminars and craft exhibitions were organized to bring Kashmir culture to the masses in which people participated and got acquainted with the culture of Kashmir.
In tweet threads, the Amrit Mahotsav said a large number of famous artistes participated in the Vitasta Festivals organized wonderfully at Chennai, Pune and Srinagar.
“The people’s participation in cultural programmes won hearts of the people who got to know about culture and traditions of Kashmir and their curiosity further increased to know it,” said one of the tweets by Amrit Mahotsav.
Asserting that Cultural Ministry extended full cooperation in the programmes, another tweet by Amrit Mahotsav said various aspects of Kashmiri culture like history, dance, music was displayed in differently which was liked by the spectators.
The tweets said youth especially showed very keen interest in Kashmiri culture.
“Vitasta programme was organized to showcase Kashmir’s art, culture, history and dishes across the country. The programme which started from Chennai ended in Srinagar and the youth showed lot of interest,” another tweet by the Amrit Mahotsav said.
During the festival, the Amrit Mahotsav tweet said, workshops, Art Installation camps, seminars and many other events were organized with large participation from the public. The programmes attracted the people.
People also came to know about Buddhist rituals on Kashmir, it added.
While Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the Vitasta Festival in the presence of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the Governors of Punjab and Tamil Nadu—Banwari Lal Purohit and RN Ravi–attended the concluding function of the festival in Srinagar.
While inaugurating the function, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stated that Vitasta is festival to show true colour of Kashmir.
The grand festival, named after the ancient Vedic name of river Jhelum, was aimed at bringing to life Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s, vision of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ (One India, Great India) under the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ initiative.
The festival was organised by the Union Ministry of Culture through the North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala, and was last in the series of three programmes of ‘Vitasta’. Earlier, this festival was organised in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Pune (Maharashtra).
The dignitaries had also visited the exhibition and art camp organised at the venue.
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