AYUSH Board draws up stiffer penalties for fake doctors

Following a notification from the Karnataka government, the board officials conducted raids at 94 Ayurvedic clinics across the state and filed cases against 15 fake AYUSH doctors. The quacks did not have their registration numbers and degree certificates.

The recent raids against fake AYUSH doctors across the state by the Karnataka State Ayurveda and Unani Practitioners Board has highlighted that the penalties and jail terms mentioned in the Karnataka Ayurvedic, Naturopathy, Siddha, Unani and Yoga Practitioners Registration and Medical Practitioners Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1961 is too meager to act as a deterrent and stop quacks from setting up clinics.

The Act states that first time offenders will be penalized Rs 100, second-time offenders Rs 200 and repeat violators Rs 1,000 along with two years’ imprisonment. The Act has not been amended over the last four decades. The quacks pay the fine and continue their practice somewhere else. The fine is too small to act as a deterrent. So the penalties are revised. The revised proposal suggests Rs 25,000 for the first time offence, Rs 2.5 lakh with two years imprisonment for the second time offence and Rs 5 lakh with three-year imprisonment for repeat offences.

This new proposal will be sent to the state health and family welfare department and state law and parliamentary affairs department for amendment of the Act.

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