SHILLONG, March 9: In a first, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) has recognised a total of 13 traditional medicine practitioners as per the provisions laid under the Khasi Hill Autonomous District (Protection and Promotion of Khasi Traditional Medicine) Act, 2011.
The Chief Executive Member (CEM), Titosstarwell Chyne, who heads the Khasi Hills Traditional Medicine Commission (KHTMC), handed over the certificates and identity cards to the traditional practitioners during a felicitation programme held at the conference hall of the Council on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters after the programme, Chyne said that a total number of 100 traditional practitioners had applied for recognition with the Council.
“Out of the 100 who had applied, only 13 have fulfilled the criteria,” he said.
Some of the criteria included detailed history of the patients treated by them, composition of their herbal medicines, success story of treatment, and certification from any government department or organisation.
“We are planning to provide financial assistance to all the traditional practitioners who are recognised by the Council. At present, we do not have any budget provisions. But we will try to get funding from various central ministries for the financial assistance,” Chyne said.
Meanwhile, he said that the KHTMC is closely working with institutes like Bio Resources Development Centre and Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development, which are also assisting the traditional practitioners.
“We are also planning to tie up with a company for certification of the herbal medicines of Khasi traditional practitioners. But this will take some time since we will need to engage experts for this,” the Commission chairman said.
Further, he informed that the construction of the Khasi Traditional Medicine Institute at Lum Sohpetbneng, Ri-Bhoi district, is almost complete.
According to him, the physical progress of the project is around 95 per cent.