The first Ayurveda Medical College in south India from Ayush department was inaugurated at Mahe in Pondicherry last month. This is the second Ayurveda medical college for BAMS, started by Union Health Ministry’s Ayush department in the country, first being in Jaipur in Rajasthan. The third one will be started in New Delhi shortly.

The College, which has been named after the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, is run by the Pondicherry based Perunthalaivar Kamaraj Medical College Society (PKMCS) and is financed by the government of the Union Territory. This is the first Ayurveda Medical college in Pondicherry. The department of Ayush has given an amount of Rs. 10 crore to start the Ayurveda College, said Dr B L Sankaran Nair, special officer of the college.

The first batch of the BAMS course comprises 50 students and the class was started on September 29. The duration of the course is 54 months. The college is affiliated to University of Pondicherry. A separate hospital with 100 beds was set up for the conduct of the course. The hospital has been started in the same pattern of the Jaipur medical college and both the colleges are following the same syllabus.

PKMCS has also started a medical college for MBBS course in Pondicherry in this month. It was inaugurated by Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC) on October 9.

Dr N Balaji, director of ISM and Homoeopathy, government of Pondicherry said the department has sent proposals to the Ayush department and to the state government to start Diploma and Degree courses in Ayurvedic Pharmacy. Currently the department has 12 homoeopath dispensaries through which special treatment for mother and child care is being given. The department is occasionally conducting training programs for government as well as private homoeopath doctors, nurses and pharmacists, Balaji said.