The International Weightlifting Federation has decided to lift the one-year ban on the Indian Weightlifting Federation for doping misconduct in lieu of a fine.

The move will enable Indian weightlifters to return to action at the Doha Asian Games in December.

The Indian Weightlifting Federation was informed that its weightlifters would be free to take part in international events once the fine is paid up.

"The Indian Weightlifting Federation shall pay the fine of US $50,000 and remain suspended from the membership of the IWF only until the whole amount of the fine is duly paid to the IWF," the IWF said in a letter to the Indian body.

The IWF also added that the money procured would be utilised "for the purpose of anti-doping activities".

The Indian federation was suspended for 12 months till next March after India's Edwin Raju and Tejinder Singh tested positive for banned steroids at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games earlier this year.

Shailaja Pujari and B Prameelavalli were the other two who returned positive tests in pre-event dope tests, conducted by WADA officials, at the national camp in Patiala.

Four positive cases in a calendar year were more than enough for the IWF to ban the Indian federation for a second time within seven months of coming out of a previous ban following the Athens Olympics doping fiasco.

The decision to lift the ban apparently came after the IWF realised that several countries, including Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia [Images] and Argentina, are at present serving suspensions and some of them would not be able to take part in the Doha Asian Games.

Since the wrongdoing of few weightlifters is affecting young and innocent lifters, the IWF felt most of the countries would be willing to pay the fine and become active at the earliest.

As far as the Indian case is concerned, there is slim hope for its athletes due to lack of adequate financial resources.

"We are looking at it (paying fine) if we can arrange some funds. We have money but that won't be enough and pooling in money is not easy. We have not yet initiated any talks in this regard so far," federation president H J Dora said.

"We will try our best, otherwise it would be like killing the prospects of the beginners," he added.

Also, the lack of preparation of the Indians in the absence of any scheduled training camp would make picking the right candidates for the competition in a short span a difficult proposition.

"We did not plan a training camp and we will have to see who could be the candidates to be sent to such an important event, which is just a couple of months away," general secretary of the Indian federation Balbir Singh Bhatia said.