TN Govt sanctions Rs 1,130 lakh to establish Sidha clinics

Tiruchirapalli, Oct 17 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Government has sanctioned Rs 1,130 lakh to establish the specialised Sidha clinics in 113 Primary Health Centres (PHCs), State Special Commissioner for Indian Medicine V A Rajkumar said today.

Addressing a press conference here, he said construction of buildings for the proposed Sidha clinics has started.

He said the specialisd clinics would be commissioned in 113 PHCs by March next. There were 1,432 PHCs in the state and the specialised Sidha clinics would be established in all the PHCs in the phased manner.

It was proposed to cover 150 PHCs during the next financial year, he added.

He said there were 30,000 traditional Sidha practitioners in the state and it was decided to give proper training for them.

There were 22 Sidha medical colleges in the state, of which 17 were of private sector. Six more applications were received from the private individuals for starting new Sidha colleges in the state, he added.

He said the Thanjavur Tamil University has evinced keen interest for starting a Sidha medical college and the government was considering this proposal.

A sum of Rs 5 crore has been earmarked for modernisation-cum-procuring of the new equipments for the TAMCOL, the state-owned Sidha medicines production unit, he added.

He said though the TAMCOL had received export trade enquiries from USA, Germany, Italy, Russia, Hungery, and other countries, it was not in a position to export its products at present, as its present annual production worth Rs 18 crore medicines consumed by domestic market itself.

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