State govt approves Rs. 20 crore Ayush hospital

Source: Imphal Free Press

IMPHAL, Sep 15: The state government has given approval to the proposal of setting up of an ayush hospital in the state, for which the ministry of Health and Family Welfare, department of Ayush, government of India has already approved the sanctioning of a sum of Rs. 20 crores.

Stating this at a press conference held today at Hotel Imphal before leaving the state, Dr S Jalajha, IAS, secretary ministry of Health and Family Welfare, department of Ayush, government of India, who had arrived in the state yesterday for a two-day visit along with a two member ayush medical team has also added that she along with her team had put the proposal of the said 50-bedded hospital before the state chief minister in a meeting held yesterday, which was also attended by the state health minister along with the state chief secretary and state protocol officials.

She has further stated that of the Rs. 20 crore, Rs. 10 crore will be allotted in relation to the acquisition of the required land for the said hospital, whereas the remaining Rs. 10 crore will be used for the building of the hospital which will also include an ayush medical hospital.

Meanwhile, she has further stated that the state government has already appointed 88 ayush doctors but due to the lack of a separate ayush hospital or a separate directorate, the appointed doctors are as of now attached to various government run hospitals. As such she had also requested the state government to set up a separate ayush directorate in the state.

Furthermore, in case the said proposal is successfully achieved, her ministry has also plans to set up branches of the hospital in all nine districts of the state and for that her ministry has already approved of Rs. 1 crore for each district of which Rs. 50 lakhs will be utilized for staff management of the branches and the remaining Rs. 50  lakhs will be put for the construction of infrastructure.

The department of Ayush, ministry of health and family welfare will further open up Ayush nursing institute and ayush pharmacies in the state in case the above mentioned proposals are successful, she assured.

She has also opined that having an Ayush Hospital in the state will promote the medicinal plants of the state and will provide employment to the people of the state, which in turn will somewhat help in the fight against the problem of unemployment in the state.

Dr. Bala Prasad, CEO National Medicinal Plants Board who was also in the visiting team while speaking at the conference added that medicinal plants are mainly used by local traditional medicinal practitioners (Maiba and Maibis) in the state. However, he added that ayush will be able to help in the merger of traditional medicines with science and help become more effective.

The visiting team also consisted of Dr SK Sharma, advisor, department of Ayush, government of India whereas the state was represented by Dr. A Guneshore Sharma, state ayush officer, medical directorate of Manipur in today’s press conference.

The visiting team also visited Loktak lake and the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Museum in Moirang during its stay in the State.