MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government is planning to crack down on and regulate unqualified practitioners who pass off as naturopaths or yoga experts.The state Medical Education Department will now move a proposal before the Cabinet to set up a council to regulate these two streams by setting up a yoga and naturopathy council on the lines of the councils for other branches of medicine.Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Dr Vijaykumar Gavit told Express that the council would have the powers to make it mandatory for the naturopaths and yoga practitioners to register themselves with it and also receive and act on complaints against them.“It is necessary to lay down some guidelines in this regard,” said Gavit, a former teacher in a government medical college, who later entered politics from tribal Nandurbar in north Maharashtra, admitting that there was a significant proportion of people who practiced and taught naturopathy or yoga without complete knowledge of the subject. The council may also lay down tests for the nature care practitioners to appear for before being granted registration. Officials from the department admit that there are also instances of naturopaths passing themselves off as medical doctors. The proposal will be moved before the meeting of the state Cabinet which will take place after the code of conduct in force for the ongoing elections to the municipal corporations, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads in Maharashtra ends, he added. Once this came through, the state government will have to table a Bill in the Maharashtra Legislature to set up the council. Gavit, however, said later that they may also hand over these powers about prescribing syllabus and educational standards and holding examinations to the council set up for nurses and paramedics.
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