Central Ayush research institute faces land hurdle in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: Amid the tall claims of creating land banks, the proposed Central Research Institute of Yoga and Naturopathy (CRIYN) has failed to take off even six years after the announcement as the State government could not provide the required 20 acre land. The Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN), an autonomous body under Ministry of AYUSH, had announced to set up the institute for chronic diseases and a 100-bed yoga and naturopathy hospital with a state-of-the-art yoga hall and a laboratory in the city in 2014.

This was supposed to be third such facility in the country after Karnataka and Haryana. The facility with 50 general ward beds and 25 each special and deluxe beds for indoor patients besides daily outdoor clinics was to come up at an estimated cost of Rs 25 crore. Although the State government had allotted 20 acre cost-free land at Binjhagiri near Chandaka on the outskirts of the city and CCRYN had released Rs 1.57 crore to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) in 2014-15 for boundary wall and walking track, construction work could not be commenced due to resistance from locals. 

The CPWD had already finished soil testing and other necessary works at Rs 8.95 lakh. As the possession of the land could not be obtained, the CPWD had refunded Rs 1.48 crore to the Council in 2018-19.Sources said the State government again identified another patch of land in Jamukoli area near Sundarpada in 2019. Though two years have passed, no step has been taken to hand over the land to the Council.

The Ministry is also at the loggerheads with the State government for another piece of land for the construction of new campus of a homeopathy drug proving unit, which is running at Puri in a rented accommodation. While the State has raised a demand order of Rs  four crore for five acre of land at Jamukoili for the drug unit, the Ministry has raised objection citing the low cost of land at Binjhagiri.    

“The Ministry has already paid Rs 90 lakh towards land premium at Binjhagiri for the CRIYN project and the government is yet to decide on the land at Jamukoli. If no decision on land allotment is taken soon, the project may be shifted to Bihar,” the sources said.Contacted, AYUSH Director Trilochan Majhi assured to take up the matter with the government for initiating land allotment process. “The land at Jamukoli has already been identified,” he added.

Project details

50 general ward beds 
25 each special and deluxe beds for indoor patients 
Rs 25 crore estimated cost