Varsity pulls allopathy out of Indian medicine

Central Council of Indian Medicine warns medical varsity

CHENNAI: The allopathy versus traditional medicine crossfire in Tamil Nadu has intensified, with the MGR Medical University pulling out the allopathy content from the traditional medicine syllabus and the Central Council for Indian Medicine(CCIM) threatening to withdraw recognition for such courses.

Caught in melee are 1,200-odd students of siddha, unani, ayurveda and homeopathy courses under theMGR university . The university had deleted allopathy portions from the undergraduate syllabus of traditional medicine courses this year as it wanted to curb traditional medicine practitioners from prescribing allopathic drugs.


CCIM, which prescribes the curriculum and syllabus for courses, is not too pleased. "If the university changes the syllabus , it would be a clear violation of the provisions of the Indian Medicine Central Council Act 1970," CCIM secretary P R Sharma said.
CCIM has demanded that the university reintroduce the removed syllabus within 30 days failing which it will withdraw recognition and the state council will be asked not to register students passing out of the university . University officials confirmed the revision in syllabus.

University vice-chancellor Dr Mayil Vahanan Natarajan said the decision to prune the syllabus 
was taken on the basis of inputs from six senior allopathic doctors. "We have reduced syllabus for MBBS by 20% because we found that students face an overload of information . In Indian 

medicine stream, we cut down on the syllabus because we thought there were too many irrelevant things," he said.
Dr Natarajan said the varsity is planning to change the nomenclature of the degrees it awarded to Indian medicine graduates.

Now, an undergraduate in Ayurveda will no more be Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) but only Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine (BAM). "Why should they be called surgeons when they don't do any surgery?," he said.

Tamil Nadu State Medical Council president Dr M Prakasam welcomed the university decision. "I am glad the purity of Indian medicine is restored . Allowing non-allopathic doctors to prescribe modern medicines and conduct surgery amounts to state-sponsored quackery," he said

Med students on warpath after univ alters syllabus

CHENNAI: More than 1,100 students of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani courses of Tamil Nadu Dr MGR 

Medical University are planning to boycott classes from Monday as they fear their courses will soon become invalid after portions pertaining to allopathic medicine were removed from their syllabus. The Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), a regulatory body for the Indian medicine doctors has threatened to withdraw recognition to the state medical university, which removed allopathic content from their syllabus for traditional medicine. The council's one month deadline to withdraw its decision on syllabus revision ends September 17.

Students from Government Siddha College in Palayamkottai, who went on a token fast last week, have threatened to boycott class indefinitely. They argue that the council had allowed students of Indian medicine to also study parts of modern medicine to enable them to become better doctors. The university has deleted surgery, pharmacology and large sections of orthopeadics and ophthalmology

Warning to MGR University

CHENNAI: The Standing Academic Board (Ayush) and the Indian Siddha Medical Graduates Association, on Sunday asked the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University not to go ahead with its proposed revision of syllabus for courses in Indian medicine. Earlier, the Central Council of Indian Medicine had warned the varsity against the move as it was against rules.

The Central Council of Indian Medicine had warned the university management that if it failed to reverse its decision, its recognition would be revoked. Meanwhile, the SAB (Ayush) and the ISMGA have called for the move to be dropped.