In an alarming finding about alternative medical institutions, a parliamentary panel has said that 142 colleges of Ayurveda, Unani and Homoeopathy colleges in the country lack minimum infrastructure.
A report prepared by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found that this include 35 newly established colleges. It said the teaching facility standards in these colleges were low and that all of them face a severe teaching staff crunch.
“A test check of records of 142 colleges — Ayurveda (58), Unani (14) and Homoeopathy (70) colleges, including 35 new colleges — which were inspected, revealed that none of them meet the minimum requirement of infrastructural and teaching facility standards prescribed,” the report said.
“Colleges with persistent deficiencies in infrastructure were denied permission to run courses during this five year period ranged between one and 13,” it said.
The Health Ministry, while agreeing with the observations, said the Regulatory Councils would consider the system of inspection of colleges at the earliest.
The deficiencies in these 142 colleges came to the light when their records by the representatives of Regulatory Councils from 2000-05 were checked.
BJP MP and Chairman of the PAC, Vijay Kumar Malhotra who had presented the 38th report to the Lok Sabha on Performance Audit of Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) said 32 to 59 per cent of the Ayurvedic colleges and 23 to 71 per cent of the Homoeopathy colleges were inspected every year by the Regulatory Councils during 2000-05.