Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday announced that Ayush (Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and homeopathy) practitioners would be given salary on a par with doctors of modern medicine.
Nitish announced that there were some technical glitches in its implementation and he had asked authorities concerned to sort it out at the earliest. The state chapter of Ayush Medical Association has been demanding that the salary of Ayush practitioners working in government facilities be made equivalent to MBBS doctors.
Nitish, while announcing equal pay for Ayush practitioners at Ayurveda Parva organised by the All India Ayurvedic Congress in collaboration with the health department, said he had an emotional attachment with the ayush practitioners as he is the son of an Ayurveda practitioner, Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh. “My grandfather was an Ayurveda practitioner while my elder brother belongs to the same fraternity as well,” said Nitish.
Nitish honoured five Ayush practitioners with the Dhanwantari Award during the event, including Vaidya Jagannath Tripathi, Vaidya Indu Mishra, Vaidya Yashwant Singh, Vaidya Ajmat Hussain Ansari and Vaidya Alakh Narayan Singh.
Nitish also had a word of caution for Ayush practitioners not to prescribe general medicines. “Ayush practitioners must practise the stream of medicine they have specialised in. It has come to the fore many times that they prescribe medicines of other streams to ensure quick recovery of a patient which is wrong. If patients requires allopathic medicines, he/she would go straight to allopathic doctors and if the patient has come to you (referring to Ayush practitioners), that means they have more faith on you,” added Nitish.
Health minister Mangal Pandey praised the norms laid down by the Union government in the proposed National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill as per which Ayush practitioners would undergo a bridge course to be able to practice modern medicine courses.
One of the reasons for which the Indian Medical Association (IMA) is opposing the proposed NMC Bill is the norm of bridge course for Ayush doctors which allow them to practice modern medicine courses.
Nitish also asked Union Ayush ministry officials to consider the pending proposal of developing the Patna-based Government Rajkiya Ayurvedic College into Akhil Bharatiya Ayurvedic Sansthan (All India Institute of Ayurveda).
Pandey promised that four out of the five government Ayurvedic colleges, which were lying closed due to various reasons, would be reopened in the next financial year and posts were being created for those colleges as part of their revival measure.
Pandey also said that around Rs 32 crore of unspent funds, which had been received from the Union government for developing Ayush facilities, would be spent on developing teaching facilities in Ayush colleges, ensuring medicines and strengthening the infrastructure in Ayush hospitals.
“We could not spend Rs 32 crore because of not having Ayush mission in the state. The Ayush mission has been created now and a few more formalities are left after which we would use this fund to upgrade Ayush facilities,” said Pandey.
Among dignitaries who were present in the programme included joint secretary of Union Ayush ministry, Roshan Jaggi, president of All India Ayurvedic Congress Vaidya Devendra Triguna, principal secretary, health, Sanjay Kumar, Ayush Medical Association’s state chapter president Madhurendu Pandey and others.
