No deadline to fill vacant posts in Ayurveda department: Chawla

When asked when the vacant

posts would be filled,she said the process was on even though no deadline had been set.

On Saturday,the health minister laid the foundation stone of a 50-bed Ayurvedic hospital at Model Gram — the same place where a 10-bed hospital was started in 1992,but was shut down due to staff crunch.

The health minister has set a deadline of five months for constructing and getting the hospital operational at a cost of Rs 37 lakh.

This hospital will have three OPDs,four therapy rooms along with emergency services.

“The Punjab government has given the approval of opening five new Ayurvedic hospitals in the state at Ludhiana,Datarpur in Hoshiarpur district,Amritsar,Bathinda and Jalandhar,” said Chawla.

Incidentally,at four of these places,Ayurvedic hospitals had been started in 1992 but failed due to shortage of funds and staff.

Sources say that in 1981,after repeated requests of Model Gram society,the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation opened Niranjan Devi Sachdeva Ayurvedic dispensary and the society was given right to get involved in its working.

It was later handed over to the Ayurvedic department in 1987; and in 1992,this dispensary was upgraded to a 10-bed Ayurveda hospital. But the experiment failed,and after six months,the hospital was converted into a dispensary.

The health minister said,“There will be no shortage of funds and medicines and 200 posts of doctors will also be filled. Very soon,the government will also start postgraduate classes in Ayurveda.”

Meanwhile,the Model Gram Society has requested to the health minister to allow it to monitor the working of the Ayurvedic hospital as they said that the Ayurvedic dispensary of yore did not flourish after it was handed over to the Ayurveda department.