Even as state units of AIOCD and AICDF have come together to attend the pharma traders’ sale strike in Tamil Nadu on October 14, both the organisations have withdrawn from holding any kind of agitation in West Bengal. All the medical stores in the state have functioned as usual and the chemists did not strike their work.

The traders belong to West Bengal Chemists and Druggists Association (WBCDA), the affiliate of all India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) have not downed the shutters of their shops by justifying that they did not want to stop dispensing of drugs to the patients, sources from traders’ community from Kolkata informed.

However, the CDA members wore black badges on the day while at the shops in order to express solidarity with the national trade body and to protest the move of the central government in introducing online pharmacy trade in the country. The association had given prior announcement that they would not strike work on the day, rather they would wear black badges.

The members of the All India Chemists and Distributors Federation (AICDF) state branch in West Bengal opened their medical shops throughout the state, said Joydeep Sarkar, general secretary of the federation.

Whereas, in Tamil Nadu, the president of Tamil Nadu Pharmaceutical Distributors Association (TNPDA), CGL. Chidambaram has attended the protest dharna organised by Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association (TNCDA), the state unit of the AIOCD, at Thanjore. The secretary of TNPDA, V P Elango was the chief guest at the agitation dharna of the TNCDA in Chennai. Elango said the members of his organisation have been given instruction to attend the strike by the chemists and druggists in all the districts as they are all traders.

The national executive committee meeting of the AICDF was held in New Delhi in the first week of this month and it took the decision to withdraw from the pharma bandh called by AIOCD. The meeting was attended by Elango from Tamil Nadu and he only moved the resolution in this regard. But he deviated from the decision, responded, Joydeep Sarkar.

According to A N Mohan, president of Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association (AKCDA), except in Thiruvananthapuram city, medical shops in all other districts were closed as part of the strike. The state drugs controller has requested the organisation to open the shops in the city of Thiruvananthapuram just to create an impression that the strike has not affected Kerala. The traders’ body obeyed the instruction of the authority by turning down the decision of the national organisation.