Members of the youth wing of Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday staged a protest here demanding that a government Ayurveda college be established at Shivamogga at the earliest.
Addressing the protest meet, Bhavani Rao More, president of the district unit of the BJP youth wing, said that with the objective of promoting the study and research on medicinal plants of Malnad region, the State government had announced in its 2008 budget that an Ayurveda college would be set up at Shivamogga. It was unfortunate that the college was yet to become functional, he said.
The government had identified 100 acres of land near Sogane village for the proposed college. However, the bagair hukum farmers engaged in unauthorised cultivation were unwilling to part with their land. The government should direct the officials of the Department of Revenue to clear the hurdles related to land acquisition, he said.
It had been planned to enrol students for the first year Bachelor of Ayurveda Medicines and Surgery (BAMS) course for 2012-13 and conduct classes at the newly established government Ayurveda Hospital here on a temporary basis till a building for the college was constructed. The Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Sidha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) had also sought permission from the Central Council of Indian Medicines (CCIM) in this regard. A team of officials from CCIM that visited the city had refused to grant permission to enrol students for BAMS course, citing lack of infrastructure and dearth of staff as reasons. He urged the government to create necessary infrastructure for the establishment of the college at Sogane and fill the vacant teaching and non-teaching posts at the earliest.
Functionaries of BJP C.H. Malathesh, D.S. Arun, Hrushikesh Pai took part.
