Naveen asks Ayurvedic scholars to maintain purity

Bhubaneswar, Nov 18 (UNI) Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today asked the Ayurveda scholars to follow the system from a position of strength to maintain its purity and authenticity.

Addressing the annual National Conference of the All India Ayurveda Congress here, the Chief Minister said it was disturbing to note that Auyrvedic doctors were practising allopathy to get recognition in the society.

Mr Patnaik said the process diluted and compromised the system as every system had its strengths and weaknesses.

He asked the Ayurvedic scholars to validate the Ayurveda formulations through improved standardisation procedures and applications of scientific instruments.

The Chief Minister said though India was rich in bio-diversity, it could not take advantage from it due to technological deficiencies, poor research and developmental infrastructure.

Mr Patnaik hoped that India could emerge as a leader with the synthesis of modern technology and the ancient scientific knowledge, relating to medicinal plants described in the texts of Ayurveda, written over a period of 5,000 years.

He said the Orissa government had taken steps to integrate Ayurveda into the state health care system and wanted all the public and private concerns to improve the products and practices to make Ayurveda globally acceptable.

Speaking on the occasion, former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said research to promote Ayurveda had not been done at the scale it should have been done and urged the authorities to create proper infrastructure and facilities for it.

Mr Joshi said Ayurveda should be promoted as it could provide accessible, affordable medicines without any side effects to the world and help create a healthy society.

He criticised the administration for describing Ayurveda as an alternative system of medicine. He said Ayurveda was the oldest health care system in the world and it was an insult to name it as an alternative system of medicine.

All India Ayurveda Congress President Devendra Triguna appealed to the state government to increase the budgetary allocation by 20 per cent for development and promotion of Ayurveda, open separate wing for Ayurveda in every dispensary and hospital and fill up the vacancies in the Ayurveda colleges.

Mr Triguna also requested the Chief Minister to initiate steps to set up an Ayurveda referral hospital at Bhubaneswar.

On this occasion, the Gyana Kalayan Charitable Trust bestowed the Sivanath Sharma Ayurveda award on Professor Ajay Kumar Sharma of the National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur, and the Chandravati Joshi Sanskrit Award on Pandit Chandra Sekhar Das for 2007-08.

The award carried a cash prize of Rs 50,000, a citation and a shawl.

UNI