The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has vacated the interim stay order granted by the Division Bench on June 26 this year restraining the Department of Ayush from shifting the Survey of Medicinal Plants Unit - Siddha (SMPU-S) functioning on the premises of the Government Siddha Medical College at Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli to Mettur in Salem.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Chitra Venkataraman and Justice M Duraiswamy dismissed the public interest litigation petition filed by the Friends of Siddha Medicine, a registered trust for the promotion of Siddha medicines.

Dr K Ganapathiraman, director, Central Research Institute for Siddha, Chennai, who had filed the counter affidavit on behalf of Ayush told Pharmabiz that the SMPU-S would be located at a Medicinal Plants Garden spread over 22 acres owned by the Central Research Institute near the Mettur dam. The land for the Garden was allotted by the Tamil Nadu Government. The process of shifting will be started in another one week's time. But the Clinical Research Unit functioning in the Government Siddha Medical College at Palayamkottai would not be shifted from there as earlier there was a plan to shift it to the premises of a Thanjavur based private University. He said, in Thanjavur, where there is no scope for clinical research that requires a full-fledged Siddha hospital.

Meanwhile, a Tirunelveli based environmental and cultural organization, the Tamizh Panpaattu Paathukaappu Peravai, has urged the State Government to order for a CBI enquiry into the situations that led the Union Government to order the shifting of the SMPU-S, which was functioning at Palayamkottai for the last 38 years since its establishment in 1971.

While interacting with Pharmabiz, Dr J Joseph Thas, president of Friends of Siddha Medicine, who filed the public litigation petition for an interim stay order, said the repository of medicinal plants has over 2,300 species of therapeutic flora, including over 1,000 species from the Western Ghats. In respect of the vacation of stay he said the Centre has provided false information to the court to get the stay vacated. Dr Joseph Thas is a Siddha practitioner and formerly the professor of Government Siddha Medical College in Tirunelveli.

K Ramachandran, secretary of the Tuticorin District Medicinal Plant Exporters Association said the SMP Unit was of great help to the exporters who visited the site to clear their doubts whenever they came across new medicinal flora. He said more than 162 research papers had been published from the unit, which had proved useful to students, exporters of medicinal plants and Siddha practitioners.

Earlier when the news about the shifting of the Unit broke out, it had triggered opposition from students, research scholars, Siddha practitioners and the public. Tirunelveli MP, S Ramasubbu has also supported their agitation against the Union Government's move.