BHOPAL: Five Bills, including one permitting appointment of Ayurvedic, Unani and Naturopathy practitioners in government allopathic hospitals, were cleared by the Vidhan Sabha on Friday.
Bills imposing Green Tax on old vehicles, a hike of 15 paisa per unit in the electricity tariff and for establishment of a new private university at Ujjain – the 24th in the state were also cleared.
Health minister Rustam Singh presented the Bill regarding the appointment of doctors of Ayurvedic, Unani and Naturopathy streams. These doctors will be given a training of three months before posting them in primary health centres. They will be authorised to prescribe only 72 types of medicine.
The leader of opposition Bala Bachchan and Congress chief whip Ramniwas Rawat said that the bill was violative of the norms of the Medical Council of India, which proscribed practice of allopathy by doctors of other streams. They demanded that the government should take permission from the MCI before presenting the bill.
The minister of state for medical education Sharad Jain presented a bill to amend the MP Medical Council Act, 1987 to delete the provision of punishment for medical practitioners of other streams prescribing Allopathic medicines.
Congress MLA Shankarlal Tiwari demanded that BDS degree holders should also be given a similar exemption.
Home minister Bhupendra Singh Thakur presented imposing Green Tax on old commercial and other vehicles. He informed that the move will generate revenue of only Rs 15 crore, which will be used for establishing a fully-equipped pollution checking centre.
He claimed vehicular emissions were responsible for 70 percent of air pollution in the state. Gwalior is the most polluted city followed by Bhopal, Indore, and Jabalpur.
Higher education minister Jaibhan Singh Pavaiya presented a bill for the establishment of Avantika University at Ujjain.
MLA Ramniwas Rawat alleged that according to the CAG report, six universities are not having the statutory 20 hectares of land and seven had started their academic activities before getting the approval of the assembly.
