200-bed nature cure hospital to come up in Mandya district

The Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy will set up a first-of-its-kind 200-bedded Nature Cure Hospital and Research Centre in Karnataka. The proposed facility will come up at Puttanahalli, in Nagamangala taluk in Mandya district on a 16-acre plot. The construction of the proposed centre is expected to be completed in 20 months.

Under the ministry of Ayush, the post-graduation institution would offer yoga and naturopathy treatment besides research facilities for those pursing higher education in the subject. The hospital will have separate treatment sections. Besides the out-patient department (OPD) and general wards, there will be special and deluxe wards.

The Centre of Excellence will offer a three-year course in Doctor of Medicine (MD) for yoga and naturopathy. Ten students would be admitted every academic year to each of these courses. The number of seats, the ministry states, would be increased over a period of time. Besides, fellowship programmes and PG diploma courses would be offered.

Pending for over a decade
The state government has allocated the land while the Centre has sanctioned Rs 72 crore for the facility. The proposal that has been pending since 2004, is finally taking shape with the foundation stone being formally laid. Though the state government had handed over the land for the hospital in 2006, the proposal had not materialised.
The Union government had agreed to grant Rs 25 crore when the initial proposal was made.

The facility was proposed to have 100 beds. The new plan states that it would have 200 beds, according to H Sreenivasiah, chairman, Gandhi Bhavan, who had first sent a memorandum to the Ayush ministry seeking establishment of the centre. “As a naturopath, I believe that we must head to a drugless therapy as it is sustainable. Yoga and naturopathy make it possible,” he explained.

‘Proposer’ not invited
Even as Union Minister for Ayush, Sripad Yeso Naik, laid the foundation stone for the event recently, no invitation was extended to H Sreenivasiah. He said that he was the first to send a memorandum to the Union government a decade ago seeking the setting up of the institute.