The Hindu : Meet to raise issue of homoeo quacks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 25, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Meet to raise issue of homoeo quacks

By Our Staff Reporter

KANNUR APRIL 24. The issue of medical practice by non-qualified homoeo practitioners in the Malabar area will be raised by the Kerala Homoeopathic Medical Graduates' Association (KHMGA) at its State conference scheduled to be held here on April 27.

KHMGA State office-bearers told a press conference here today that the conference would highlight the demand for taking action against `homoeo quacks' who had been practising in the Malabar region. The unlawful homoeo practice by these elements who had not had their names registered with the Central Council of Homoeopathy would damage the homoeo sector in the region.

The issue of practice by non-qualified homoeo practitioners remained unresolved even after three decades after the enactment of the Central Act intended to regulate practice of the homoeopathic system of medicine in the country in the absence of a unified State legislation on medical practice applicable for the entire State, they said.

A major point of dispute between qualified and non-qualified practitioners was the conditional exemption of the latter from the provision of Central Council of Homeopathy Act of 1973 (CCH Act). Since 1976, when the Central Government issued a gazette notification extending the Act to all the States, a large number of non-qualified persons have been practising and new clinics by them have mushroomed in the Malabar region. Qualified homoeo practitioners attribute the problem to the lack of initiative by the Government to enact a law to complement the CCH Act.

As Kerala is one of the few States having no comprehensive medical practitioners' Act to encompass all disciplines, qualified medical practitioners of different systems are having their names registered with the Travancore-Cochin Medical Council (TCMC), constituted as per the Travancore Cochin Medical Practitioners' Act of 1963. After the reorganisation of the State in 1966, there has been no statutory provision regarding the regulation of homoeo practice in the Malabar area which previously belonged to the erstwhile Madras State and is therefore out of the jurisdiction of the TCMC.

The KHMGA State vice-president, R. Sunil Raj, the convener, P. Manojkumar, and the organising committee vice-chairman, Mohamed Ashique, were present at the press conference.

The conference would be inaugurated by the Kannur University Vice-Chancellor, P.K. Rajan, here on April 27.

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