AYUSH Doctors And Yoga Instructors Move Supreme Court Seeking Revival And Extension Of "AYUSH-NPCDCS" Integrated Project

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court by AYUSH Doctors and Yoga Instructors seeking directions for forthwith revival and extension of the captioned "AYUSH-NPCDCS" integrated project with the same workforce and in the same six Districts, in line with previous extensions granted last year.

The plea is likely to be listed for hearing before the Apex Court on July 1st 2021.

The petition filed through Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava sought the retention of petitioners along with other similarly situated AYUSH Doctors and Yoga Instructors, and expeditious completion of the entire exercise of integration of AYUSH with NPCDCS through "National Ayush Mission" in terms with letter dated 29th April 2021.

It may be noted that, through its letter dated 29th April 2021, the Ministry of Ayush had submitted a proposal of integration of AYUSH with NPCDCS with the National Ayush Mission (NAM) in the same 6 districts where the said programme was running in a pilot mode.

The plea has further sought directions to the States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Rajasthan, UP and West Bengal to submit their respective proposals for integration of AYUSH with NPCDCS through their respective State Annual Action Plan.

The plea has argued that the Respondents have closed the said "AYUSH-NPCDCS" project with effect from 30th April 2021 in an utterly arbitrary and unfair manner, and in total disregard to the benefits being rendered by the captioned project to the lakhs of people across India.

The plea has stated that the Petitioners have effectively discharged their duties as COVID-19 warriors during the period of March, 2020 to April, 2021, and in view of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic they ought to have been retained and "AYUSH-NPCDCS" integrated pilot project ought to have been continued.

The petitioners have argued that they, along with their similarly situated colleagues of the said project, are duly qualified and duly trained Doctors and Yoga Instructors. Therefore terminating their services and later on reviving the said project under NAM, will require fresh recruitment and training which will be a time and money consuming exercise.

The plea has further stated that the decision to stop the captioned project and terminate the services of the directly engaged Petitioners, is violative of the D.O. dated 20th March 2020 whereby the Ministry of Labour and Employment had advised all the Employers of Public/ Private establishments to not terminate their employees amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Sree Hanumantha Rao Nalla and Others Vs Union of India