CM Rawat to emerge from AIIMS this week

DEHRADUN: Nearly a month after he was admitted to AIIMS, New Delhi, with serious neck injuries suffered in a bumpy helicopter ride on June 13, Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat is set to be discharged from hospital.
Media in-charge of AIIMS Surendra Kumar told TOI that despite improvement in the chief minister’s health, he would only be discharged once senior doctors attending to him are satisfied with his medical reports.
A senior aide to the chief minister told TOI that the chief minister had shown considerable improvement, and will be discharged in about a week.
“Although, there is lots of improvement in his condition, we have asked Rawat to take extra precaution until he recovers quite completely,” a senior doctor at AIIMS said.
Surendra Kumar said the chief minister had met at least 500 people from Uttarakhand at AIIMS, in the nearly one month that he has spent there.
The chief minister’s media coordinator Rajiv Jain said, “Hundreds of people have travelled from remote parts of the hill state each day to meet Rawat and ask after him.”
The assembly by-polls in three seats – Dharchula, Doiwala and Someshwar in Pithoragarh, Dehradun and Almora districts, respectively, are scheduled for July 21.
Congressmen hope the chief minister, who is contesting the by-polls from Dharchula, will recover ahead of the polls.