New Delhi: With the Punjab government planning to dilute norms to register pharmacists, concerns are growing that the move will worsen the state’s problem of “fake pharmacists”.
According to The Tribune, the Punjab State Pharmacy Council will no longer verify the basic qualifications of applicants who want to register as pharmacists. The move comes even as the state has ordered an inquiry into allegations that officials of the pharmacy council took bribes to provide licenses to unqualified pharmacists.
In 2015, information obtained through Right to Information (RTI) applications showed that an “unusually high number of pharmacists” were registered between 2000 and 2013. According to The Tribune, those who want to get a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy need to pass Class XII in science subjects first. “It was found that 40% of the registered pharmacists had obtained Class X and XII certificates from dubious and unrecognised boards located outside the state. Many candidates were above 40 years of age and some even 50 when they obtained pharmacy degrees,” the report says.
A registrar of the pharmacy council sought the cancellation of “fake” registrations and suggested that first information reports (FIRs) should be filed against 3,000 candidates and some officials but he was removed from the post, the newspaper reported.
An inquiry was ordered into the alleged fake pharmacists by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research, which asked the pharmacy council to verify not just the pharmacy degree of applicants but also the Class X, XI and XII certificates.
Even as that probe is still underway, the council has decided not to verify the Class XII certificates anymore. The decision was recorded in the minutes of the meeting dated October 18, according to The Tribune, which said the easing of the norms will not only open the “floodgates for unqualified pharmacists” but may also pave the way for letting off those who are under the scanner for obtaining certificates through dubious means.
Swaranjeet Singh, the convener of the Paramedical and Health Employees Front, told The Tribune that the pharmacy council has utterly failed to weed out unqualified pharmacists in the past eight years. “Rather it has been working overtime to save them. The decision is against the norms. The accountability of the state drug controller, government analyst and registrar of the council must be fixed,” he said.
According to the newspaper, Sushil Kumar Bansal, the president of the Punjab State Pharmacy Council, said the decision was after “verbal” instructions from the vigilance officer investigating the matter of “fake” pharmacists but did not substantiate the claim.
