Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said here on Wednesday that every panchayat in Kerala would soon have a government Ayurveda treatment facility, achieving total health coverage under the Ayurveda system of medicine in the State.
Talking to the media after a meeting of the Cabinet, the Chief Minister said that the Cabinet had sanctioned Ayurveda dispensaries to 25 panchayats without a dispensary. This would leave only five panchayats without an Ayurveda dispensary under the Department of Ayurveda or the National Rural Health Mission.
Mr. Chandy said that the general provident fund scheme would be made applicable to government employees coming under the contributory pension scheme introduced with effect from April last year.
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A sum of Rs. 50 crore would be made available for rubber procurement by a consortium of cooperative banks. The handling charge payable to procurement agencies would be increased from Rs. 4 a kg to Rs. 6 a kg. Rubber was being procured at Rs. 2 above the market price.
The Cabinet, he said, approved a Rs. 31-crore project of the Meat Products of India to set up a modern abattoir and meat processing unit at Edappal. It also approved proposal to start an Institute of Climate Studies at Kottayam under the Department of Environment. It also approved creation of 167 posts for Regional Cancer Centre here.
Replying to questions, the Chief Minister said that he would examine the criticisms made by A. E. Muthunayagam, who resigned as chairman of State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority. The allegation that members of the Authority were not qualified would also be looked into. The Authority had met and cleared 17 applications for quarrying, when the chairman’s post was vacant, as delay in disposing pending applications would have resulted in many more getting automatic clearance.
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He said that the government was willing for discussions with those agitating against the Aranmula airport project if they wanted. He denied that there was disunity in the UDF over this and other issues.