NEW DELHI: The Union government has raised the financial support to open Ayush colleges from Rs 9 crore to Rs 70 crore to ensure the opening of more such institutions, it announced on Saturday.
Union Ayush Minister Sarbnanda Sonowal said that there are only a few Ayush colleges in the Northeast and the Indian traditional medicine systems can only be popularised by making available more qualified practitioners.
“For this purpose, more Ayush teaching colleges may be required to come up in the Northeast states,” said the minister.
Earlier, the centrally-sponsored scheme of the National Ayush Mission provided financial support of Rs 9 crores to state governments to open new Ayush colleges.
“Now, we have raised this amount to Rs 70 crore. States may identify the land and manpower for this purpose and avail this opportunity as per the guidelines of the NAM,” Sonowal said while addressing a conference on ‘Diverse and Fulfilling Career Paths in Ayush Systems: Education, Entrepreneurship & Employment Focus on Northeastern States’ in Guwahati.
He added that the ministry has also accorded in-principle approval for upgrading the Government Ayurvedic College, Jalukbari, Assam as the centre of excellence with the support of up to Rs 10 crore, adding that the Centre also provides Rs 5 crore to upgrade the under-graduate teaching colleges and Rs. 6 crores to improve the infrastructure of post-graduate institutions.