India News | Cong's Partap Bajwa Slams Punjab Govt for Not Inviting Cong MLAs to Cancer Hospital Inauguration

Chandigarh, Aug 24 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday accused the Punjab government of showing its narrow-mindedness by not inviting the opposition party's MLAs to the inauguration of Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Mohali.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 300-bed Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Mohali's Mullanpur on the outskirts of Chandigarh earlier in the day.

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Some Punjab ministers and BJP leaders were also present on the occasion.

"As the Leader of Opposition (in the Punjab Assembly), I strongly condemn the meanness of the AAP. It shows the lack of political maturity and bankruptcy of the Aam Aadmi Party, which is otherwise trying hard to present itself as a substitute for the BJP at the Centre," Bajwa said in a statement here.

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He said the foundation stone of the hospital was laid by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh on December 30, 2013. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal was the Punjab chief minister at that time.

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said while it was good on the part of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to welcome Prime Minister Modi and thank him for the inauguration of the hospital, he should also have acknowledged Singh's contribution.

"Actually it was a gift given by Manmohan Singh in 2013 to Punjab which Prime Minister Modi inaugurated today," Warring said, wondering how Mann could forget the former prime minister.

Meanwhile, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal expressed gratitude to Modi for dedicating Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre to the country.

He also called for the establishment of sub-centres of the institute in Majha and Doaba belts to provide affordable and quality cancer treatment to the people of Punjab.

In a statement here, Badal said, "It gives me immense pleasure that the 300-bed cancer hospital came into being after me and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal visited the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) in 2012."

"We persuaded the TMC Board to establish its first facility outside Mumbai in New Chandigarh and even got the project cleared by the Union government and got its foundation stone laid in 2013.

"The then SAD government allotted 50 acres of land for the institute which is part of the Medicity project initiated by it to provide world-class treatment to the people of Punjab," he said.

Asserting that people will now get quality cancer treatment at subsidised costs, Badal said, "Thousands of patients will benefit with the establishment of the institute in New Chandigarh".

He also appealed to the prime minister to facilitate the establishment of 200-bed sub-centres of the institute in Jalandhar and Amritsar to broad base cancer treatment in the state and expedite construction of the PGI satellite centre at Ferozepur.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)