PATNA: The members of Ayush Medical Association (AMA) have requested the health department to bring pay parity with MBBS doctors.State AMA president Dr Madhurendu Pandey said he hopes the government would rejuvenate Ayush medical system in the state. Dr Pandey said out of the five government Ayurvedic college and hospitals in the state, only the one in the state capital enrol students for the courses. “Many posts are vacant in the government Ayurveda college and hospitals at Bhagalpur, Buxar, Darbhanga and Begusarai; hence, admissions in these hospitals are banned by the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM). The last appointments were made in these colleges in 2001-02,”he said. The concept of a national Ayush mission is only on paper. “There will be individual directors for Ayurveda, Homoeopathy and Unani colleges once a directorate is set up,” he added.Patna’s Ayurveda College and Hospital’s principal Dr Dineshwar Prasad said 32 seats for lecturers and professors in the college were vacant. “We have fulfilled the criteria for conditional admissions in the college. We are waiting for permission to start admissions,” he said.Dr Prasad said regular admissions were not being carried out in the college as the required number of teaching posts as per the CCIM norms are not filled. “The Government Ayurvedic College and Hospital in Patna, which was set up in 1926, should have been developed as a national level institute,” he added.Referring to the discussions with state health minister Mangal Pandey, the AMA president said the government assured him of taking positive steps in this direction. “As per the National Rural Health Mission, 1384 Ayush doctors were appointed in 2010. A Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram figure says 1637 Ayush doctors were posted on contract in additional primary health centres and primary health centres in the state in 2015. We still get Rs22,000 compared to Rs44,000 to an MBBS doctor per month,” Dr Pandey said.The AMA has also requested the state to appoint Ayush doctors in the state.