Balasore: The AYUSH Hospital proposed by the Ministry of AYUSH in this district in 2018 has been hanging fire.
In order to help people enjoy the benefits of ayurved, yoga, yunani, siddha and homoeopathy, the Ministry of AYUSH had decided to set up a 50-bed hospital in this district. For this, five-acre land at Achyutpur in Remuna block was also identified. The administration has also transferred the land to the ministry.
The district administration has already deposited a detail report on the project to be constructed by the Housing and Urban Development Department. The total cost of the project had been earmarked at Rs 12 crore.
“In compare to allopathic medicines, Ayurvedic ones are generally less expensive and have no side effects. So people in some cases prefer Ayurvedic medicines. We are eagerly waiting for the hospital to come up. If immediate steps are not taken for the construction of the hospital, we will resort to agitation,” warned some senior citizens of the locality.
General secretary ‘District Senior Citizens Forum’, Laxmidhar Behera said the approval for the AYUSH hospital has come after large-scale agitations. “The central government had sanctioned the money for the hospital in the 2018-19 fiscal. But the amount was returned as the land had not been identified by then,” informed Behera. “This year, the administration has earmarked the area for the hospital and has handed over the documents to the revenue divisional commissioner (Central Division). Since money has again been sanctioned in 2019-20, we can say for sure that the construction will start soon,” he added.
When contacted, District Ayurvedic officer, Trilochan Dhal said as per the direction of the Ministry of AYUSH, five acres of land has already been identified and the DPR has been prepared. It has been sent to the state AYUSH directorate. “We hope the construction work on the much-awaited project will begin soon,” said Dhal
PNN