Jorhat, June 10: The three homoeopathy colleges in Assam have received a fresh lease of life after the Central Council of Homoeopathy (CCH) accorded them recognition till 2008.

However, admission to the three colleges are still to begin because the Union health ministry has not yet given permission, as it has not received a formal notification from the CCH.

The three colleges at Nagaon, Guwahati and Jorhat were facing closure following disaffiliation by the CCH a few years back because of poor infrastructure and inadequate number of teachers.

The disaffiliation had created a lot of problems for the final year students because they could not pursue further studies. The students were forced to resort to an agitation. The agitation has been going on for the past year.

The students had held a hungerstrike at Dispur a few months back.

A staff member of JJ Saikia Homoeopathy College here said he was hopeful that admissions would begin this year because state health minister Bhumidhar Barman was in the process of sending a demi-official (DO) letter to the Centre for expediting the admission process.

The letter would directly intimate the Union health ministry of the CCH?s decision

The official said the CCH had withdrawn recognition two years ago, as the three colleges could not fulfil the its conditions because they lacked enough staff.

The problem has been resolved after the state government agreed to sanction 30 new posts for the three colleges from April this year.

The new recruitment will raise the strength of the teaching staff of Jorhat College to 29, Nagaon to 25 and Guwahati to 30.