Gujarat govt step-motherly towards ayurveda colleges: Congress

The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) spokesperson, Dr Manish Doshi, has accused the state government for ‘neglect’ of ayurveda colleges will compel students to study in expensive self-financed institutions (SFIs). He said that the state government had stopped providing maintenance grants and also stopped recruitment in these colleges.

In a release, Doshi said that the move to neglect government ayurveda colleges and grant-in-aid colleges is yet another way the health and family welfare department was nurturing SFIs. The government colleges charge nominal fees unlike the SFIs. 

There are ten ayurveda colleges in the state - four government colleges, three grant-in-aid colleges and three SFIs. However, only two government colleges, one grant-in-aid college and two SFIs have permission to run the course currently. The five colleges have 260 seats in all for ayurveda, which is second most preferred course for science students after medicine.

“The government ayurveda colleges charge Rs 1,000 while grant-in-aid colleges charge Rs 25,000 as fees. Looks like the state government does not want to encourage affordable education. That is why it has stopped giving grant to (grant-in-aid) colleges and stopped recruitment in government colleges for the last 10 years.

That is the reason the department of ayurveda, yoga & naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy has not given permission to two ayurveda colleges to function. Grant-in-aid colleges where new recruitment has been stopped to save salary expense also face threat of closure,” said Doshi.

When the affected colleges approached the state government for grants, they were advised to switch to the self-financed model.  The Central government provides grants to promote ayurveda colleges but because of the state government’s apathy, the colleges are losing out on grants worth crores, he added.