RAHA, March 9 - Vehicular traffic on the Nagaon-Guwahati highway was blocked by a large number of residents of the town and activists belonging to different youth, student and social organisations, including AASU, AJYCP, KMSS, ATSU at Raha Natun Chariali for about two hours on Wednesday demanding the establishment of the proposed All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Assam at Raha.
The protesters under the banner of the �AIIMS Demand Committee, Raha� assembled at Raha Natun Chariali at 11 am and started blocking the national highway as vehicles piled up on both the sides of the road. Amid sloganeering, the protesters also expressed their anger against the BJP for befooling the people of Raha on the AIIMS issue.
Addressing the protesters at the site of the blockade programme, Hiranya Narayan Bora, president, AIIMS Demand Committee, Raha, alleged that a plot of land measuring approximately 600 bighas at village Chaparmukh under Shahari mouza was marked for establishing the AIIMS, but due to the �negligence and arrogance� of the Central Government Raha did not get the nod for the ambitious project.
�The central inspection team for the AIIMS project had visited the proposed site at Raha three times and announced that the site was suitable. But now the prestigious hospital project has gone in Guwahati�s way, which we are opposing,� said Birinchi Kumar Bhuyan, secretary, AIIMS Demand Committee, Raha.
The protesters also came down heavily on the Congress government in Dispur and the BJP-led government at the Centre for not proposing the AIIMS at Raha. They also alleged that the BJP MPs in upper Assam kept mum over the issue.
�We will blame it all on Nagaon MP Rajen Gohain. He failed to properly take up the matter with the Central Government,� said a local AASU leader who joined the road blockade programme.
The blockade was lifted at 1 pm after submitting a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister through the Circle Officer of Raha.
