Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-07-03

Cultivating Ayurvedic Medicinal Herbs at the model village level and selling to the Ayurvedic Drugs Corporation

- The model village housing programme which functions under the Ministry of Housing and Constructions addresses the housing problems of beneficiary families and empowers such beneficiaries in view of making them productive partners of the national economy. As such, for a model village comprising 25 housing units, a land extent of two acres in addition to the land allotted for the houses have been reserved for collective cultivation of beneficiaries. Similarly, Cultivation of ayurvedic medical plants have been initiated in 77 model villages which have already been vested with the beneficiaries and ayurvedic medical plants are expected to be introduced for the proposed 2,500 model village as well. This programme will also minimize the import cost borne by importing ayurvedic drugs and enhance the income level of the beneficiaries. Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Sajith Premadasa, the Minister of Housing and Construction, to establish a Steering Committee for launching the programme of promoting the cultivation of ayurvedic medicinal herbs within the model villages, was approved by the Cabinet.