DEHRADUN: The Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) in Uttarakhand and state health department officials were in for a bit of a shocker on Saturday when health minister S S Negi said funds crunch coupled with incompetent ayurvedic practitioners has severely hurt people’s faith in alternate ways of treatment. The minister was speaking during a day-long seminar in Dehradun.
Speaking on the occasion, Negi said the state government has set up ayurvedic hospitals in both hills and plains but they have no takers. “Patients do not visit these hospitals because there are no medicines.”
He added that the ayurvedic treatment’s popularity has been on decline in the state. While talking about the quality of new ayurvedic practitioners, the minister said, “The new lot has inferiority complex. This issue has to be addressed at the college level so that they become competent professionals after passing out.”
Nilanjan Sanyal, secretary, Central government’s Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, said the AUYUSH department at the Centre gets only 3% of the total budget sanctioned for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. “We should try to work with the limited funds in a well planned manner. The medicines required in ayurvedic hospitals can be purchased from the budget allocated to the state health department,” he said. [Source]
Be the first to comment