The Central Council of Homoeopathic (CCH) is most likely to stop admission of the Bachelor of Homoeopathic Medicine and Surgery (BHMS) degree students in four Government Homeopathic Colleges in State from coming academic session as the State Government failed to comply with the basic infrastructure and other criteria sought by the CCH.
Sources said the CCH may too recommend the closure of these colleges. According to sources, a CCH team is scheduled to arrive in the State on January 13 and visit the four colleges at Brahmapur, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur and Rourkela on January 14, 16 and 17 and 18 respectively.
The Council, in its guidelines issued earlier, had stipulated that each Homoeopathic college must have at least 41 teachers. However, the guidelines were revised later in which the Council made a mandatory provision for the appointment of 24 full-time and eight part-time teachers in each college. It also has made it clear that of the 24 full-time teachers, 12 must belong to the rank of either Reader or Professor.
Apart from the staff strength, the Council had also asked the State Government to ensure certain basic infrastructure in the four Homoeopathic colleges.The Ayush Department of the Union Health Ministry in a notification to all State Governments in 2011 had given two years’ time to comply with the CCH guidelines.
However, while all other States carried out the necessary changes required under the new guidelines, Odisha has turned out to be the lone defaulter.The poor state of affairs at the four Homoeopathic colleges came to light during the visit of a CCH team last year.
Peeved over the callousness of the State Government, the Council had threatened to derecognise these colleges.However, the Centre finally softened its stand and allowed one more year and asked the State Government to fulfill the criteria within six months. However, although six months have elapsed, the Government has not taken any step in this regard.
Going by the CCH guidelines, the four colleges should have 96 regular and 32 part-time teachers. But these colleges have nearly one-third of the required strength at present. The infrastructure too continues to remain poor.