In spite of Union minister of state for chemicals Shrikant Jena's directive to accord top priority, the ministry's ambitious Jan Aushadhi (generic drug) stores project is going on at a snail's pace and the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) will not be able to meet anywhere near the minister's target of 276 stores by March 31, 2010. If the present pace of the project is any indication, the DoP will not even be able to achieve 35-40 per cent of the target, it is learnt.

According to sources, as the DoP is sure about the fact that it may not be able to meet the target set by the minister it has set its own target of opening 100 generic stores in different parts of the country. “But that too looks difficult now. We will be able to open 75-80 stores by March 31 next year,” sources said.

The DoP has so far opened around 30 such shops at different locations in the country, especially the northern states of Pubjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi. In Delhi, the department will soon open three more Jan Aushadhi stores, one each at the premises of GTB Hospital, BR Ambedkar Hospital and JP Hospital, as part of its plan to take the total of such stores up to 50 in the country.

Earlier, concerned about the slow progress of the project which is aimed to make quality generic medicines available at affordable prices to the poorer sections of society, the minister had asked the senior officials in the DoP to accord top priority to the Jan Aushadhi project. The minister was believed to have told the officials to anyhow meet the target of opening a total of 276 Jan Aushadhi stores in different parts of the country, even at the cost of other projects and programmes of the department.

Providing quality medicines at affordable prices to the poor people was one of the promises made by the Congress-led UPA government at the centre during the elections. The minister has also committed in Parliament during the just concluded session that the government will open at least 276 stores in one year.

Jan Aushadhi stores (generic drug stores) project is an ambitious project of former chemicals minister Ramvilas Paswan under which the government proposed to open one Jan Aushadhi store in each district of the country. By establishing the Jan Aushadhis in each district, preferably in the premises of the district hospitals, the government wanted to ensure quality medicines to the poor people at affordable prices. At a time when the prices of medicines are increasingly becoming out of the reach of poorer sections of the society, the Jan Aushadhi stores are expected to prove to be a boon to them. Once implemented according to the prices suggested by the government, the treatment cost is to come down drastically, as much as 93 per cent in some categories.