There is good news for all homeopathy practitioners in Maharashtra. The Devendra Fadnavis government now plans to train them in the modern medicine (allopathy) in big numbers for which all 26 private medical colleges are being roped in. The move aims to fill the shortage of allopathy doctors especially in the rural area.

At present, only government-run medical colleges offer the course which was launched for the first time in August 2016. Over 500 homeopaths have enrolled for the course. It is conducted on weekends and covers pharmacology and medicine. However, their certification as allopath will be subject to Bombay High Court verdict.

Each government medical college is allotted only 50 seats and thus 700 seats are up for grab in the state every year. The course fee is Rs 50,000 stipulated by the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences.

There are nearly 60,000 registered homeopaths in the state. "With this rate (700 homeopaths a year), it will take two generations to train all the aspirants into modern medicine. Getting private medical colleges on board, we aim to expedite the work so that shortage of allopathy doctors can be addressed to some extent," said Girish Mahajan, Medical Education Minister of Maharashtra.

The Indian Medical Association condemns the move. "It is a further dilution of norms in order to upgrade the homeopaths as allopath. The government is playing with the citizen's lives even when the case is being heard by the Court. It is better if the government converts all homeopathy colleges into medical colleges to end all controversies," says Dr Jayesh lele, IMA Maharashtra president.

The Congress-NCP government had allowed homeopaths to pursue modern medicine provided they complete a one-year course at government medical college.