Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said on Saturday that North India’s first government homeopathic college, centrally funded at a cost of Rs 80 crore, will come up in Kathua district of J&K.

Continuing his consistent spree of development even after the declaration of his mandate for the Lok Sabha, Dr Jitendra Singh today visited the proposed site of the college in the Jasrota village of Kathua, where work for the boundary wall has already started.

The Minister was briefed by the engineers and senior experts from the Department of Ayush about the institution.

Singh reiterated that the agenda of Udhampur-Kathua-Doda Lok Sabha constituency, which was taken at hand soon after he was elected as Member of Parliament in 2014, will continue uninterrupted till the date of the declaration of election schedule and will resume immediately after the Model Code of Conduct is lifted.

Singh expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi before whom this requisition was put up, and said it was a matter of pride for the people of Kathua that North India’s first government homoeopathic college will come up here.

He said the institution will be spread over an area of more than 8 acres, adding that the adjoining three acres may also be added to the existing premises in due course of time.

“The proposed structure will include a hospital complex, a college, an administrative block and one hostel each for male and female students,” Singh said.

He further informed that the open space will be utilised later on for construction of an auditorium, playground, etc.

Singh said that it will not only be a great boon for aspirants of homoeopathy degree in North India, which was not available earlier, but this will also provide cost effective treatment to needy patients.

“It will also be in keeping with Modi government’s healthcare approach which involves synergizing allopathic with Ayush streams of medicine, including Homoeopathy, Ayurveda and Naturopathy,” the Minister added.

The Minister stated that the experience after Covid has further consolidated this view that traditional Indian methods of medicine and cure have a panacea value.

Highlighting the medical infrastructure of Kathua built in the last ten years, Singh said the district now has a government medical college and a cancer treatment facility being provided by Tata Memorial Centre, Bombay.

“The addition of a government homoeopathic college will make Kathua an integrated and cost effective healthcare centre of North India in times to come,” he underlined. He added that with this, Kathua is all set to emerge as North India’s cost-effective and state-of-the-art centre of medical facilities.

He said, this is a rare Lok Sabha constituency which got three centrally funded medical colleges in the last few years.