Click to play videoSrinagar: Dr Fayaz Shawl, a world renowned cardiologist, who has treated world leaders like Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth and Tony Blair, is on the brink of tears. Dr Shawl says his hopes of setting up a hospital in his hometown in Srinagar have been shattered by the state government. He says the government scuttled his project at the last minute and some officials even demanded a bribe from him.
Dr Shawl thought it was payback time to his soil but he alleges that the government threw a spanner in the works. The doctor with a heart had to finally abandon his dream project which would come up here, and has returned to America heartbroken.
Shawl alleges junior Housing and Urban Development officer Nasir Wani initially gave approval for the project but just before the work was to commence in the first week of June, he was told that construction was barred on that site according to the Srinagar master plan.
In a letter to CNN-IBN, Wani has clarified that the doctor was given three options:
1) Taking over an alternative hospital called Kashmir nursing home.
2) Exchanging his land with another piece of land.
3) Undertaking to treat poor patients after which state cabinet would consider amending the master plan.
However, Dr Shawl rejected it all.
When CNN-IBN went to the site of the proposed hospital, we found construction activity going on in an adjacent plot. In fact, several other houses including those of two senior doctors have been constructed recently in the area. With the row now even reaching Prime Minister's office, the Jammu government will have to answer many tough questions.
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