PM Dahal pledges to promote Singha Durbar Vaidyakhana as national pride project

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has pledged to promote the Singha Durbar Vaidyakhana Vikas Samiti as a project of national pride.

Inaugurating the 7th International Ayurveda Congress here today, the Prime Minister assured that the 300-year-old institute would be made vibrant and upgraded as the national pride project. As the Prime Minister announced, ayurvedic medicine in Nepal would be further promoted and policy-level decisions be taken to systematise the imports and exports of most essential medicinal herbs. “Policy decisions will be taken bearing in mind the need to operate the National Ayurveda Research and Training Centre in full fledge and intensify a research on indigenous herbs,” the Prime Minister said.

He went on to say that the government was working on a policy of establishing a centre for manufacturing ayurvedic medicines and collecting and processing herbs at each province, while promising some policy decisions to remove hurdles in the imports and exports of most essential medicinal herbs so as to facilitate the manufacturing of ayurvedic medicines.

The Prime Minister took time to promise that an atmosphere would be enabled for exporting medicinal herbs, assuring of government grants for herbs farming. Describing Nepal as a suitable zone for ayurvedic herbs, he stressed the need for dealing with issues in the sector caused by climate change. As he said, further exploration and research are needed on medicinal plants such as Yarshagumba, gooseberry, Rudraksha and basil plants available in Nepal.

Hospitals, wellness clinics, and yoga and meditation centers will be established to promote health tourism, he said, adding that for this, a policy decision has been already taken. A 100-bed Ayurveda hospital will be established each in all seven provinces, he said. There will be a cooperation with the Ministry of Ayush of India for Nepal to continue the research on Ayurveda that the Government of India has put in high priority, said the PM.

The conference was organised in collaboration with Ayurveda related national and international organisations including the Nepal Maharishi Vedic Foundation (NMVF), and the International Maharishi Foundation, said Dr Kopila Adhikari, General Secretary of the Ayurveda Doctors Association of Nepal.

Slogan for the conference is ‘Ayurveda for all health’. More than 500 Ayurveda experts, researchers, industrialists and doctors from over 50 countries have participated in the conference that aimed to help with the publicity of Ayurveda and promote health tourism, she said.

Besides, students, professors, producers and businesspersons have also taken part. The NMVF President Dipak Prakash Banskota expressed the hope that the seminar would help provide information about Nepal’s traditional ayurvedic system and ayurvedic medicines to the world and its contribution to the global health.

On the occasion, Ambassador of India to Nepal Naveen Srivastava said the Indian government led by Narendra Modi has prioritised and promoted Ayurveda by establishing the Ministry of Ayush.

Some efforts have been taken for cooperation between the two countries in Ayurveda and naturopathy and medicinal herbs, and this would yield results in the days to come, he said. The conference will run until coming Sunday.