New Delhi: Ministry of Health has denied 80 Ayurveda colleges permission to admit students for the year 2012-13 because they lacked infrastructural facilities.
“Of 261 Ayurveda colleges in the country, till Aug 22, 161 colleges have been permitted to admit students. Eighty colleges were denied permission,” S. Gandhiselvan, minister of state for health and family welfare, told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
“There are a total of 261 colleges teaching the Indian system of medicine,” Gandhiselvan said.
Eighty colleges were denied permission to take in a fresh batch of students as they failed to meet requirements such as qualified faculty and at least one teacher in each department, besides being attached to a hospital.
Government norms for such medical colleges also lay down other parameters, like number of beds, out-patient department (OPD) attendance and in-patient department (IPD) bed occupancy.
While there are plans to mainstream AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy), the government does not plan to deploy AYUSH doctors in rural areas.
“The government does not propose to deploy AYUSH doctors in rural or remote areas after imparting one-year training in allopathic medicine to them,” Gandhiselvan clarified.