INDIAN LEGISLATION AMENDED TO ALLOW AYURVEDIC DOCTORS TO PRACTICE ALLOPATHY
The Times of India (Chittaranjan Tembhekar)
Feb 27, 2014, 05.29 AM IST

Mumbai: The state of Maharashtra has secured the rights of over 80,000 ayurveda and unani doctors to practise allopathy. The state had earlier issued a notification as these doctors have been practising allopathy since past few years. But as the notification could be challenged in court, the state cabinet, on Wednesday night, decided to amend the bill and will pass it in the ongoing session.

But ayurveda doctors don't have to take a pharmacology course to prescribe allopathy medicines as it is part of their curriculum. The decision to allow homoeopaths has not gone down well with the allopathy doctors and their banner-The Indian Medical Association's Maharashtra chapter.

Both the decisions were prompted by shortage of doctors in rural areas. Sources in the government said that allopathy doctors often abstained from mandatory rural service.