Rs 12.5 cr Siddha and Ayurveda hospital in Puducherry

Puducherry, Jul 29: A Siddha and Ayurveda hospital would come up here under the Central government's AYUSH hospital scheme at a cost of Rs 12.5 crore, a senior health official said today.

The Centre had given the sanction for the hospital which would be set up soon, Director of Health and Family Welfare Services K V Raman told reporters here.

He rejected reports that plans were afoot to shift the proposed hospital to Yanam, an enclave of the union territory in Andhra Pradesh.

"We are mooting a proposal to have a separate hospital for Yanam and the one sanctioned for Puducherry would not be disturbed and it would come up as planned earlier," he said. Noting that incidence of dengue in Puducherry had drastically come down, he said the health authorities had taken special initiatives. He said the department had been holding special awareness programmes for school children on a regular basis.

"We are catching the students young and use them as messenger of cleanliness to achieve prosperous Puducherry," Raman said. He said an open house session would be held here on July 31 to get feed back from the public on the facilities required and the shortcomings they faced in delivery of health care services.

PTI