The Department of Pharmaceuticals' (DoP) ambitious Jan Aushadhi project, launched with much fanfare in November 2008 for making quality medicines available at affordable prices to the common people of the country, is progressing at a snail's pace. Against a target of more than 600 stores, the DoP could open only 154 such generic drug stores so far in the country.

According to sources, the main reason for this extremely poor performance of the department on this project is that after the initial enthusiasm, some senior officials in the DoP developed cold feet on the project, for reasons best known to them only. Jan Aushadhi project was a pet project of former union chemicals minister Ramvilas Paswan under which the government proposed to open at least one Jan Aushadhi store in each district of the country.

Paswan launched the project on November 25, 2008 when he opened the first Jan Aushadhi store at Amritsar in Punjab. Though it is almost five years since the launch of the project, it did not pick up momentum ever since Paswan left the ministry after the Lok Sabha elections in 2009.

According to the latest data announced by union health ministry, 154 Jan Aushadhi stores have been opened so far (till March 31, 2013) in 12 states namely, Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttrakhand, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.

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.