State to set up college and hospital on yoga and naturopathy in Belur

Kolkata: Bengal government is all set to construct a yoga and naturopathy degree college and hospital in Howrah's Belur giving emphasis on the traditional methods of treatment.

The hospital will come up at an estimated cost of Rs 67 crore. It will have 100 beds with an annual intake capacity of 60 students.

The project has been taken up by the Ayush department with an aim to utilise Ayush system of medication in delivering health care to masses.

In another development, a 50-bedded Integrated Ayush Hospital is under construction at Midnapore town. The hospital is expected to be made functional within the current financial year. Once the hospital is operational, many patients from the areas can avail Ayurvedic treatment at the hospital.

In addition to these projects, the state government has also given consent to provide 10 acres of land in the premises of Kalyani TB Sanatorium for 'Centre Research Institute on Yoga & Naturopathy (CRIYN)' at Kalyani in Nadia. The total cost of the project is Rs 300 crore. The research institute will have 10-bedded hospital as well.

After coming to power the Mamata Banerjee government had laid enormous stress on the development of infrastructure in Ayush sector.

A different department has been created to give impetus to the country's one of the oldest methods of treatment. Many new Ayush hospitals have been constructed in different parts of the state.

It may be mentioned here that the Ayush method of treatment is cost effective and people with some financial constraints can avail the treatment.

Hence, the government has taken a number of steps to promote Ayush form of treatment.

Pathological and bio-chemical tests are now done at free of costs at Viswanath Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya (Ayurvedic Pharmacy Training Institute) in collaboration with private laboratories.

The Ayush department has collaborated with private laboratories to run the project smoothly.

Two new post graduate courses namely 'Practice of Medicine' with 6 seats in the Calcutta Homeopathic MCH and 'Materia Medica' with 6 seats in Mahesh Bhattacharyya Homeopathy (MCH) have been started.