The Pondicherry Government has reconstituted the Pharmacy Council of Pondicherry with elected members after a period of 35 years. The lieutenant governor of Pondicherry, S Iqbal Singh, issued an order on September 30 indicating the names of the elected members. This is the first time an election to the Council was conducted to satisfy the quorum requirements of the Council after its establishment in 1975 in the Union Territory.

The reconstituted Council, in its first meeting held on September 30, elected Dr V M Munisamy as the president and B Prabath as vice-president. The new Council will assume charge this month, said the newly elected president, who is the reader of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the Government Pharmacy College, Pondicherry.

The other members elected are G C Lekshamanasami, R Muruganandan, P Selvaraj and K Vijayakumar. The nominated members include M C Gopalan, M Jnanavel, Dr V Gopal, Dr Ganesh Raja and Frederic Saint Andre. The ex-officio members are the State Licensing Authority & Director of FDA P Rajkumar, director of Health & Commissioner of Drugs, Dr Dilipkumar Baliga and senior Government Analyst Dr G L Upadhyaya.

The Government will appoint a Registrar to the Council within a few weeks time, it is learnt. As per Pondicherry Government rules, only a Government servant with B Pharm Degree can become the Registrar to the Council. The post of Registrar was lying vacant for the last two years, but the charge was given to the Additional Commissioner of Drugs. After the retirement of the ACD, the charge is with the SLA.

Though the election for the six members to the Council, the first time in its history, was held on December 4 last year, the Council could not be constituted because of the absence of nominated members from the government side. The government took near about ten months to nominate five members. The remaining three members to the quorum are filled up with the presence of ex-officio members.

The former Drugs Controller and the Registrar in-charge, M Deenadayalan said when the Council was officially constituted in 1975, there was no election for the Council members as no body was either interested or aware of it. Somehow the government managed to get nominations of six persons for the purpose of quorum. The same system was continued till last year when more than six persons filed nominations that necessitated an election. Deenadayalan who conducted the first election to the Council as the Returning Officer , was also the first Registrar of the Council in its beginning.

In the absence of a Registrar to the Council for the last two years, the Pharmacy Council was looked non-functional and the pharmacy graduates passing out of various pharmacy colleges were unable to register themselves in the Territory. According to an analysis conducted by Pharmabiz, more than 200 B Pharm students could not register with the Council till some time back as the registration was held up indefinitely for want of the Registrar. The non-availability of registered pharmacists have put the traders in trouble to comply with the norms of D&C Act in appointing pharmacists in their shops.