Ayush department in trouble as Government squeezes fund

The government’s fiscal situation has put the department of Ayush into a fix.

Having pledged Rs 5,400 crore in the remaining two-and-a-half years of the 12th Five Year Plan for National Ayush Mission, the government has allocated only Rs 300 crore to the department.

This is way below the minimum Rs 1,000 crore the department was expecting in the 12th plan allocation. Over 20 states have already submitted elaborate programme implementation plan but there is no money to be disbursed.

Sample this: UP, which was readying an ambitious Rs 400 crore PIP under the Ayush Mission has been told to make do with just Rs 48 crore. “The National Ayush Mission was annnounced as a Rs 5,000 crore project, along the lines of the National Health Mission. That was for the remainder of the 12th plan. By that standard we were planning for at least a Rs 1,000 crore kitty. Accrodingly, we had asked states to plan . Now we do not know how to face them,” said an official.

The funding pattern for the Ayush Mission was to have been 90 per cent-10 per cent for special category states and 75 per cent-25 per cent for others.

Ayush is among those schemes whose funding pattern the finance ministry now wants changed to a 50 per cent -50 per cent ratio.

Ayush department in a fix as govt squeezes fund