Nagaland
is one of five northeastern states that received what appears to be a token
impetus in the medicinal plant development sector as part of the nascent Ayurveda,
Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy’s (AYUSH) attempt to inject
more thrust.
Funds
allocated to the NE states under the ‘medicinal plants’ component of the
centrally-sponsored scheme of ‘National AYUSH Mission’ show Nagaland in the
bracket of 60 lakh. While the amount might not be considerable in long-term
development thrusts, it indicates that the state of Nagaland has a place in the
greater objectives of forest resource management and development.
Another
indication of that impetus is that out of the eight northeastern states,
Nagaland’s fund quota, along with Manipur’s, leads the other states’
allocations. (See table)
The Minister
of State (independent charge) for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik told the Lok Sabha on
Friday that then National Medicinal Plants Board of the Ministry of AYUSH was implementing
a number of schemes to encourage conservation, farming and promotion of
medicinal and herbal plants throughout the country including the north-eastern
states.
For instance the central sector
scheme on Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal
Plants aims at providing project based support for survey, inventory, in-situ conservation, ex-situ conservation
/ herbal gardens, and linkage with Joint Forest Management Committees, and for
research and development etc.
The National AYUSH Mission
(NAM) has a component on ‘medicinal plants’ and primarily aims at promoting cultivation
of prioritized medicinal plants on farmers’ lands. It offers ‘backward linkages’
through establishment of nurseries for supply of quality planting material and
forward linkage for post-harvest management (setting up of storage, drying
sheds etc.), the minister stated.
The cultivation of
medicinal plants is supported by providing subsidy to farmers through the
identified implementing agency in concerned state. The assistance is
provided as per the State Annual Action Plan approved for concerned State.
Prior to NAM Scheme, the cultivation of medicinal plants was being supported
under Centrally Sponsored Scheme of “National Mission on Medicinal Plants” of
NMPB implemented from years 2008-09 to 2014-15.
Under
the component of medicinal plants’ of the NAM scheme the sharing of budget is at
the ratio 90:10 between the central government and the state government. For
the other states, the budget sharing ratio is 60:40 between the central and state
government.
Further,
to check ‘irregularities in utilization of the funds released under the
schemes,’ regular monitoring activities are being carried out, the minister
stated. In addition, third-party monitoring on scheme-activities and projects are
also carried out through identified third-party monitoring agencies, the house
was told.
However,
in the State of Meghalaya, based on the irregularities observed by State Audit
in implementation of various Centrally Sponsored Schemes by the SMPB of Meghalaya
for the period from April 2009 to March 2015, the Meghalaya state government
has already filed an FIR on to investigate the matter, he added.
(Rs. in lakh)
|
S. No.
|
State
|
Funds allocated under “Medicinal
Plants” component of Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National AYUSH Mission
during 2015-16
|
Funds released under "Central
Sector Scheme on Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of
Medicinal Plants" during 2015-16
|
|
1.
|
Arunachal Pradesh
|
0.00
|
79.09
|
|
2.
|
Assam
|
0.00
|
175.26
|
|
3.
|
Manipur
|
60.80
|
452.91
|
|
4.
|
Meghalaya
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
|
5.
|
Mizoram
|
14.384
|
176.18
|
|
6.
|
Nagaland
|
60.414
|
19.58
|
|
7.
|
Sikkim
|
30.731
|
302.56
|
|
8.
|
Tripura
|
36.064
|
130.42
|
|
|
Total
|
202.393
|
1336.00
|
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