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Himachal Pradesh ayurveda tourism is a damp squib

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Baldev Chauhan Shimla
Last Updated : Feb 25 2013 | 11:50 PM IST
Upset over the the poor start to the ayuveda tourism in Himachal Pradesh, the Central government has rapped the state and even asked back for the unspent money.
 
About four years ago, the Union Health Ministry had sanctioned about Rs 1.25 crore to the hill state to start the popular ayurvedic "panchkarma", an ancient ayurvedic health rejuvinating therapy in its state-run fleet of Himachal Pradesh Tourism Corporation(HPTDC) hotels across the state.
 
But the state government was able to spend less than half the amount in three out of the four planned popular HPTDC hotels in the last four years. The purpose of the grant was to popularise ayurveda among tourists, particularly foreigners.
 
In this regard, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had pulled up both the central and state health department for failing to utilise the money. Official sources said in the last four years only Rs 53 lakh had been spent. The irked union health ministry has now asked the state government to return the remaining Rs 73.32 lakh unspent money.
 
The CAG report had said even though ayurveda tourism was on the rise in other parts of the country, Himachal Pradesh had clearly failed to promote thie new form of tourism in the state. The report rapped the bureaucracy for the failure.
 
Despite low costs and widespread publicity, the "panchkarma" therapy has been unable to pick up.The ayurveda department blames shortage of experts for the failure.
 
The state ayurveda department is now planning to rope in the private sector to promote ayurveda tourism in the hill state.

 
 

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First Published: Feb 09 2006 | 12:00 AM IST

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