Medicine shops remain shut across Bihar as pharmacist oppose new regulation

Bihar: Medicine shops remained shut across Bihar yesterday in protest against the state government's new regulation that calls for mandatory recruitment of a qualified pharmacist at every medical store.

The strike call for January 22-24 had been given by Bihar Chemists and Druggists Association, and medical stores situated inside the premises of government and private hospitals had been exempted from the shutdown. Pointing out to the severe shortage of pharmacists in the state, the association had opposed the government regulation and demanded that one pharmacist be allowed to man more chemist shops than one

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"We are not averse to having pharmacists at our shops. But there are less than 10,000 pharmacists in Bihar as against more than 50,000 medicine shops in the state. We cannot be blamed for this scenario," the association's president Parsan Kumar Singh told reporters.

He said as per the new guidelines issued by the state the health department, medicine shops found to be running without pharmacists may be fined and have their licenses revoked.

"This is irrational and would only result in harassment of medical store owners at the hands of drug inspectors", he alleged.

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TOI reports that the strike was later called off after the health minister Mangal Pandey and principal secretary (health) assured the association that the government is going to look into their demands