Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Minister opens health tourism festival

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Feb. 7. The Government intends to utilise the abundant healthcare facilities being made available in the State to attract more tourists and thus give a boost to tourism, according to the Minister for Health, K. Sivaprasada Rao.

Inaugurating the three-day Health Tourism Festival-2003, jointly organised by the A.P. Tourism and Culture and Health, Medical and Family Welfare Departments at the Lalita Kala Thoranam on Friday, Dr. Rao stated that the Government wanted to promote alternative systems of medicine.

The Minister expressed happiness with the response from different States -- there are 128 stalls in the exhibition -- and announced that the event would be an annual feature.

Dr. Rao said holding of the festival was a new chapter in the State tourism sector and cited the success achieved in Dubai where a similar event was organised recently.

He advised the people to practise meditation, yoga and other natural methods of exercise to relieve themselves of stress and to keep different health disabilities at bay.

The Principal Secretary, Health, Chaya Ratan, announced that the department proposed to adopt villages for offering specific health action plan of treatment. While hailing the homeopathy's contribution to the total cure of Japanese Encephalitis, particularly in Nalgonda district, she said the department was looking forward to research in Unani medicine which could offer solutions to be problems faced by diabetics.

The Principal Secretary, Tourism, Chandana Khan, said the event, originally visualised as heritage festival, took the shape of health tourism festival as "health is nothing but heritage, which should be given due importance.''

The Commissioner, Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy Department, T. Janardhan Naidu, spoke. A. Srikanth, Additional Secretary, Tourism, was present.

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