The Hindu 07.02.2014
Civic body to seek opinion on traditional healing
The critical observations made in the local fund audit
against the district panchayat for appointing a “traditional healer” to
provide medical care to children affected with autism has prompted the
civic body to seek the opinion of a medical panel to find the
effectiveness of the treatment.
In the year 2007, the
panchayat on its own roped in a Palaghat based person, who runs a
private traditional healing centre there, to provide traditional
medicines to children with autism.
Centre opened
A
centre was opened at Venganoor where the “traditional healer” makes
routine visits after collecting herbal medicines from the tribal
villages of Agali, Sholayur and Pudur.
The budgetary
allocation for the programme had gone up from Rs 10 lakh in the initial
period to Rs 20 lakh in the current fiscal.
In the
local fund audit for the year 2012-13, the auditors sought to know from
the authorities on the criteria for selecting the practitioner, whether
the firm floated by him has been recognised by the medical council and
registered with the Travancore Cochin Medical Council.
An official with the district panchayat told
The Hindu
that the practitioner has not registered with the Travancore Cochin
Medical Council and there was no scientific proof to show the utility of
the medicine administered to the children.
However,
he said the civic body has decided to continue with the programme as
some of the parents of the autism affected children gave positive
feedback.
President of the district panchayat
Ansajitha Ressal said, “after the audit report, we wanted to shutdown
the centre. But a few parents wanted the treatment to continue. We have
received a mixed response. Now we are planning to appoint a panel of
government doctors, including ENT specialists and neurologists to
evaluate the children. The drugs controller will be asked to test the
herbal medicine administered to the children. The payment made to the
practitioner, an official said was purely based on the requirement made
by him and there was no scientific parameter adopted in paying for the
service provided by him.”
“We need to have a re-look on the payment side too,” Ms. Ressel said.
