State proposes subsidy for planting medicinal plants
Sushil Goyal
Tribune News Service
Sangrur, April 25
The state government is sending a proposal to plant lakhs of medicinal plants and hold awareness camps at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore to the National Medicinal Plant Board, Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India.
The proposal was prepared by the state Department of Forests and sent to the state Department of Ayurveda for discussion and further submission to the National Medicinal Plant Board in Delhi.
Dr Rakesh Sharma, Director, Ayurveda, Punjab, said here today that they had discussed the proposal a couple of days ago and were now forwarding it to the National Medicinal Plant Board.
He said the funds would be utilised in the plantation of 26 species of medicinal plants in the state, besides the holding of seminars and workshops for creating awareness among farmers.
He said this on the concluding day of the state-level five-day “Arogya Mela”, organised by the Department of Ayurveda at Government Ranbir College here. Regarding ‘Arogya Mela’, Dr Gopal Krishan, District Ayurvedic Officer, Sangrur, said about 2,000 patients had been examined daily by the doctors of ayurveda, homeopathy, unani and naturopathy systems of medicines here. Experts delivered lectures on these systems of medicines. Many stalls had also been put up here by various pharmacies to sell their medicines and other products.
Dr Sharma further said that the main aim behind the promotion of medicinal plants was diversification.
He said with the funds provided by the Union Government, a subsidy would be given to farmers to plant medicinal plants. Most of the farmers planted medicinal plants in Ropar, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur areas and earned huge amounts, he added.
