Upgrade Ayurveda college, Centre urged

Thiruvananthapuram: Shashi Tharoor, MP, has asked the Centre to upgrade Government Ayurveda College, Thiruvananthapuram, as a national institute.
In his speech at Lok Sabha on Monday, Tharoor opposed the Union government’s move to merge three Ayurveda colleges under Gujarat Ayurveda University, Jamnagar, and to declare it as an institution of national importance.
Union minister of state in ministry of Ayush Sripad Yesso Naik introduced the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Bill in Lok Sabha on Monday for the merger of the Ayurveda institutions in Gujarat.
Tharoor said the Ayurveda college in Thiruvananthapuram, founded in 1889, should have been declared as institution of national importance, let alone a national institute. By overlooking the Ayurveda college in Thiruvananthapuram, despite being formed much before the Gujarat university, the government has violated Article 14 of the Constitution which provides equality, he said.
Opposing the bill, Tharoor said the ‘selective’ move to confer the institution of national importance on the Gujarat university was unreasonable and it treats identically recognized institutions of Ayurveda partially.