An agitation seems to be brewing within the Kerala Pharmacy Council with several council members rallying behind the ousted president K C Ajith Kumar. The president was removed from the post by canceling his nomination as a member to the Council by the state government last week.

Ajith Kumar, a Pharmacist of the General Hospital in Thalasseri, has been continuing as a nominated member to the Council for the last 18 months.

On his removal, the government has asked the state Drugs Controller, who is one of the ex-officio members of the Council, to perform the duties of the president till a new president is elected. The Drugs Controller said that he has called a council meeting for February 26, in which a decision will be taken regarding the Council election.

The ousted Council chief told Pharmabiz that there would be a protest march by the Federation of Indian Pharmacists Organisation (FIPO) on February 26 towards the Council office raising a slogan 'Save Pharmacy Council'.

Informed sources said the president and the council members have objected to the appointment of a new registrar recruited by the government in place of the existing one. This decision of the Council has in fact added fuel to the fire, as there has been many allegations against the Council and its president.

Last year the Council had conducted a statewide survey of the working pharmacists and launched a campaign for renewal of their registration in all the 14 districts in the state under the pretext of enforcing the section 42 of the Pharmacy Act. The Council had made renewal mandatory for all including for those who had registered for lifelong membership so as to confirm whether they were practicing in the state. This has led to the cancellation of membership of many lifelong membership holders who were unable to attend the campaign.

Apart from this, the reform agenda of the Council had placed thousands of pharmacists working in the private pharmacy stores and clinics in the state in a serious trouble, as they could not get their Drug Licenses renewed at the Drugs Control Directorate. This was because of the Council's decision to limit the validity of the registration of the certificates, even to the life long registration, up to December 3, 2008 except in Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram districts where the campaigns held in its last phase. Later, following a report in Pharmabiz, the Council had given another chance to apply for renewal, which caused yet another problem for those belong to the northern districts of the state.

Another allegation was that the Council had deliberately delayed the process of election and the membership renewal campaign was held against all the democratic principles. The Kerala Private Pharmacists Association (KPPA) had even complained to the Pharmacy Council of India against certain decisions by the state council. KPPA had demanded the PCI to instruct the state council to hold the periodical election of the six members to the council in district wise rather than implementing a new plan initiated by the Council. The Council's plan was to send the ballots to the voters by registered post

Out of the total 14 members of the Council, six members are elected by the registered pharmacists, five members are government nominees and the remaining three are ex-officio members.

There were some corruption charges also leveled against the former president by certain Pharmacists Associations regarding the formation of a Pharmaceutical Society with the help of a group of working pharmacists and some officials of the state pharmacy council. The allegation was that the Council had diverted a big sum from its account for the Society's new initiative of starting a pharmacy college. But Ajith Kumar had earlier commented that it had been done by the previous administration.