However, since electropathy is not a recognised field of medicine, the government will have to first amend the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act, 1961 to include DMS in its schedule. Electropathy, which originated in Italy in 1885, is a science which makes use of medicines prepared from plants using a unique method whereby ``their essences are preserved and living energies kept intact.''

The government is yet to prepare the syllabus for this DMS course, but sources said it would be allopathic in nature. Though the course will be conducted in medical colleges throughout the state, thegovernment will not fund it. The expenses will be recovered from students and the fees has been fixed at Rs 5,000 per year.

While the government's decision comes as a godsend for electropaths -- who have been fighting for recognition for the past four years -- it is likely to raise the hackles of allopaths. The allopaths' opinion is that the government is allowing all and sundry to enter their field. They point out that electropaths put in only around half the years of training that a qualified allopath does. Besides, electropathy is a dubious field of medicine, allege allopaths and homeopaths. The research on this subject is all but negligible, a fact admitted by electropaths themselves.

Around 30 institutions had come up after 1985, offering courses in electropathy. These institutions did not have any formal recognition, but according to Chetan Rambhia, president of the Mumbai chapter of the electropaths' union, the students were not informed about this. According to officials, the government had beentrying to close down these colleges since their inception but the Bombay High Court issued an order preventing the state from taking any action. This order was passed by Justice Dharmadhikari on March 11, 1988, when a case against one electropathy college in Malkapur was challenged in the HC.

However, the stay was vacated in an interim order passed by Justice M L Pendse and S H Kapadia on November 25, 1994. Accordingly, the government shut down the electropath colleges. Incidentally, a final order on this case is yet to be passed.

The students -- the first batch had passed out in 1989 after their three-and- a-half-year course -- however were left in the lurch by the order. The government decision to rehabilitate the 12,000 students has been taken on the basis of a report submitted by the three-member Parchure Committee, set up to look into the matter. The panel, headed by Dr Suhas Parchure, member of Central Council of Indian Medicine, submitted its report in January 1995, and recommended therehabilitation of electropaths after they finish the three-year course.

The course has its limitations as well, as it is going to benefit only the students who passed out before 1993, as recommended by the committee. Once these students pass out, the courses will be stopped, as institutions offering electropathy courses have been banned in the state.