Stalin to be Founder-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Siddha University

Chennai: Seeking to give the much-needed thrust to research in Indian systems of medicine, the State government on Wednesday tabled the establish Tamil Nadu Siddha University as was announced in the last Budget.

Interestingly, the Bill tabled by Health Minister Ma Subramanian comes merely days after the Assembly adopted two legislations to replace the Governor with the Chief Minister as the Chancellor of State-run universities. The new Bill said the Chief Minister would be the Chancellor and would thus have the absolute powers to appoint the Vice-Chancellor from the three names shortlisted by the search committee.

This is not the first university in the State that has the Chief Minister as the Chancellor - late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was the founder-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Music and Fine Arts University. However, the move is still noteworthy, coming as it does at a time when the State government led by Chief Minister MK Stalin has been seeking to clip Governor RN Ravi’s powers. The Siddha University would offer courses on Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy – collectively called AYUSH.

“Scientific validation of the medicines prescribed by Siddha and other traditional systems need to be further researched to be successful all over the world so that the benefits can reach the entire humanity. In order to develop Siddha and other systems of medicine by giving due thrust for research, the government considers that a separate university may be established,” said Minister Subramanian.