Kerala - Thrissur   

Plea to notify Ayurveda licensing authority

Staff Reporter

THRISSUR: Leading Ayurveda medicine manufacturers in Kerala have appealed to the Government to issue a gazette notification giving legal validity to the newly constituted State level Licensing Authority for Ayurvedic medicines.

In a joint statement issued here on Tuesday, they said in the absence of the gazette notification, the Authority has not been able to renew the licences of ayurvedic medicine manufacturing units or sign any other official paper during the last six months of its existence.

It said the State Government had initiated the procedure for appointing State level Drugs Controllers for Ayurveda following a direction from the Union Government that there should be a separate licensing authority for Ayurveda in each State.

Special schemes

The Centre had also sanctioned special schemes for the State Governments to start the separate departments and offices for the authority. The Kerala Government was given Rs. 7.18 lakh as grant by the Centre for the launch of the licensing authority for Ayurveda.

Though the State Government constituted the Authority then, it had not yet issued the relevant gazette notification.

Many Ayurveda units have constructed buildings and other facilities to start new production facilities. But, they are unable to start the production as the Authority has not given them the licence, or renewed their GMP certification. The units are now facing financial loss owing to delay in launching production.

They said Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy had promised to take remedial steps when they took up the issue with her recently in Thiruvananthapuram.

However the issue remains unresolved even now, they said.

Signatories to the statement include P.M. Varrier of Kottakkal Aryavaidyasala; P.R. Krishnakumar of Aryavaidya Pharmacy (Coimbatore) Ltd.; Ashtavaidyan E.T. Neelakandan Moos of Vaidyarathnam Oushadhasala; K. Anilkumar of Kerala Ayurveda Pharmacy Ltd; and D Ramanathan of Sitharam Ayurveda Pharmacy.

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