LUCKNOW, Feb. 22 -- The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on AYUSH, tabled in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly recently flagged inadequate practical training and lack of teaching staff at Ayush colleges in the state. "Practical training of students at several Ayush colleges remained compromised," stated the report. Bottlenecks in providing training to students in handling surgical cases were cited in the report. Minimum standard requirement (MSR) for undergraduate and postgraduate Ayurveda and Unani MCH provides at least 60 beds for intake capacity of up to 60 students and minimum 100 beds for postgraduate colleges with an average number of 24 in-patients per day in the last one year. Similarly, MSR for Homeopathic MCH provide minimum 25 beds for intake capacity of up to 100 students with average 60 in-patients, and one additional bed for each clinical subject of specialty with minimum 30% in-patients in a year. "The data indicates that in-patients in all the hospitals was considerably low, leading to inadequate bedside training to students. Though the dissection hall was available, cadaver was not in any of the test checked hospitals, except Ayurvedic GMCH, Pilibhit. There was no case of delivery and no cases of surgery in any GMCH at the time of Joint Physical Verification of the hospitals," said the report. "The government furnished (January 2025) no reply except stating that in-patients decreased in Unani GMCH, Lucknow due to Covid pandemic and construction of a nearby bridge. The government also accepted scarce availability of cadavers and stated that due to non-permission of AYUSH doctors for administration of IV fluids, delivery and surgery cases are not done in AYUSH colleges. The government further stated that surgery and delivery cases are not done in Unani GMCH, Lucknow," the report noted....