Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Institute has signed an agreement with the Ex-Servicemen Welfare Department under Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme and Patanjali Yogagram. With this, now ex-servicemen and their families will get treatment in Patanjali.
There will be no financial limit on the treatment cost related to Yoga, Ayurveda and naturopathy. There are about 60 lakh ex-servicemen and their families in India.
The agreement was signed by Major General MPS Gill (GoC of Uttarakhand sub-area) and Patanjali founder Baba Ramdev, following which documents were exchanged. Baba Ramdev , while addressing the gathering at the mini auditorium of Patanjali University in Haridwar, said that both saints and soldiers serve the country in their own way. Expressing gratitude to the Indian Army, he said that it is an honour for Patanjali to be associated with the armed forces. He urged Major General Gill to extend this initiative to serving soldiers in addition to ex-servicemen, to which the General responded positively.
Ramdev claimed that Patanjali is the only centre in the world where more than 3,000 patients are admitted at a time. The target is to increase its capacity to 5,000 soon. He further said that Patanjali will also start modern medical surgery soon.
Ramdev emphasised that yoga and Ayurveda have successfully treated serious ailments like cancer, hypertension, diabetes, heart failure and spinal disorders, of which there are thousands of cases.
Speaking on the occasion, Major General MPS Gill said that though the MoU took time to materialise, it will directly benefit lakhs of ex-servicemen and efforts will be made to include serving soldiers as well. He lauded the dedicated efforts of Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna and underlined Patanjali’s unique contribution in creating an integrated medical model combining yoga, Ayurveda, naturopathy and allopathy.
Maj Gen Gill compared this holistic approach to “harmonisation of two tracks of a railway line”.
Acharya Balkrishna, general secretary of Patanjali Yogpeeth, said that Patanjali has always believed in innovation and holistic health. He announced that ex-servicemen will get Patanjali’s ‘Swadeshi Samridhi Card’ free of cost, which also includes an accident insurance cover of ₹10 lakh. The agreement was signed by Col Jitendra Kumar, Regional Director, ECHS, Dehradun and Swami Aryadev, Seva Pramukh, Patanjali Yogagram.
Col Kumar said this is the first agreement between the Army and Patanjali under ECHS, which fulfills the long-pending demand of ex-servicemen to have access to AYUSH-based treatments
