Even as the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) ambitious 'Jan Aushadhi Scheme' is moving at a snail's pace with just 157 stores in five years against the target of opening at least one store in each of the 630 districts in the country, the department related standing committee on chemicals and fertilizers under the chairmanship of Gopinath Munde has taken up the 'scheme' for its examination and report.

The standing committee will examine the issues such as creation of awareness in public at large about the Jan Aushadhi Scheme and generic medicines; methodology involved including the prices of medicines; access to quality medicines at affordable prices for all; prescription of the generic medicines by the government and private doctors; availability of all the essential and listed medicines at Jan Aushadhi Stores; major bottlenecks faced by stockists, Jan Aushadhi Stores, NGOs, hospitals, charitable/ cooperative/ government bodies including Red Cross Societies and the state governments affecting the smooth implementation of the scheme, etc.

With a view to have wider consultations and a holistic view on the subject, the committee has invited views and suggestions from experts, individuals, institutions, organizations and other stakeholders within three weeks time.

The Jan Aushadhi scheme is an ambitious 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 in order to provide relief to the common man in the area of healthcare, by ensuring availability of generic medicines at affordable prices. Paswan launched the project on November 25, 2008 when it opened a Jan Aushadhi store at Amritsar in Punjab. Though some more stores were opened, it did not pick up momentum, mainly due to the apathetic attitude of the DoP officials towards the project for reasons best known to them only.

The medicines for the campaign are supplied by the Central Pharma PSUs (CPSUs) under the DoP. Under this campaign, it was proposed to open, initially, at least one store in each district of the country.  As against the target of opening one JAS in each of the 630 districts, only 157 stores have been opened till 30.9.2013 in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttrakhand, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and UT of Chandigarh.