The Pharma Gladiator, a Mumbai-based NGO, has sought chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's intervention to amicably solve the on-going tussle between the chemists associations and the Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) over the issue of operating chemist shops without qualified pharmacists.

In a memorandum to the chief minister recently, Pharma Gladiator's chief trustee Narendra Jain suggested that as a long-term solution to the issue, short term courses should be designed in consultation with Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) so that the person who is having minimum qualification of XII and more than 10 years experience as proprietor or partner can be approved as pharmacist after passing the prescribed exam.

For the short-term solution of the issue, he suggested that in the larger interest of the patients, who had adversely affected due to the strike resorted to by the chemist associations in Mumbai recently, the pharmacists should be allowed to work part time. The full time pharmacists should not be insisted by the FDA. Voluntarily the chemists should not sell the scheduled medicines if the pharmacist is absent. The FDA should deal with chemists found to be selling scheduled medicine as per law i.e. action should be taken as per Rule 66 only after issuing show cause notice.

The FDA should respect the law and the illegal “on the spot order for closure of shop” should not be issued. The Government should order enquiry on all such illegal “on the spot orders for closure of shop” issued by FDA officers. “On the spot orders for closure of shop” have deprived the chemists of their statutory remedy provided in the Act. If shops can be closed by issuing “On the spot orders for closure of shop”, then the power of appellate authority should be withdrawn and Rule 66 should be abolished. The government must clarify the purpose of Rule 66 of the act, Jain in his memorandum said.

The tussle between the chemists associations and the FDA started early this year when the Maharashtra FDA embarked on a state-wide crack down on chemist shops which operate without a qualified pharmacist. As a result, several chemist shops were ordered to shut down 739, and the FDA also issued show cause notices to hundreds of other chemist shops besides cancelling licences of several chemist shops.

As a retaliatory action, the Retail and Dispensing Chemists Association (RDCA) in Mumbai started operating eight hours a day, strictly between 10am and 6pm, much to the discomfort of patients and doctors.