The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is on a warpath against the Central government’s decision permitting Ayurveda postgraduates to perform 58 surgical procedures.
IMA leaders said here on Tuesday that they would be forced to launch an agitation against the order of the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), a statutory body that regulates the Indian medical systems such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa, and Unani following the Central government’s adamant stand.
Doctors across the country had struck work on December 11 in protest against the Centre.
But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is unfazed.
IMA State president C.K. Chandrasekharan, district president P. Rajagopalan Nair and district convener M.B. Ali said that doctors would go on a hunger strike in all districts until February 14.
“Each medical stream has its strengths. Ayurveda students and practitioners should focus on their stream and strengthen it through research. If they are allowed to practise surgical procedures of modern medicine, they will in effect be turning to modern medical streams, and at loss will be Ayurveda,” IMA leaders said.
People’s health
They said that apart from harming Ayurveda by promoting its practitioners to take up modern medical procedures, the new move would also pose a challenge for the people’s health.
