More than 300 registered pharmacists under the banner of Chhattisgarh Youth Pharmacists Association (CYPA) staged agitation in front of the office of the Director of Drugs Control Administration (DDCA) in Raipur demanding implementation of Pharmacy Practice Regulations (PPR) 2015 and proper enforcement of Drugs and Cosmetics Act in the state.

The agitators alleged that the government of Chhattisgarh was not taking any step to implement the PPR 2015 which has now become the magna carta of pharmacy profession. According to them, the department of drugs control in Chhattisgarh is inactive and it does not enforce the drug laws properly in the state. Many of the drugs stores are working without qualified and registered pharmacists, violating the norms of the drug act and the pharmacy act.

Raising slogans against the drugs control administration for its lethargy, the agitating pharmacists said various pharmacists’ groups in the state have taken up the issue with the government several times and given representations, but to no avail. After giving one more memorandum to the director, the association said if the government does not try to solve the problems, they will be forced to intensify their agitation.  

The agitation of the CYPA got support of organisations of pharmacists from nearby states and pharmacy RTI activists. Several members of the Jharkhand Pharmacists Association (JPA), under the leadership of its president, Dharmendra Singh, came to Raipur to attend the agitational program.

Vinay Kumar Bharti, RTI activist for pharmacists, Yugal Sharma, convener of Chhattisgarh Youth Pharmacists Association, Vaibhav Shastri, organizing secretary of CYPA and  Rahul Kumar, secretary of CYPA led a demonstration to the office of the DDCA and staged the agitation. Students of pharmacy from pharmacy institutions in the state also participated in the program.

Expressing solidarity with the motto of CYPA agitation, several pharmacists organisations from across the country also extended their support to the agitation of the Chhattisgarh pharmacists. Tamil Venden, president of Tamil Nadu Pharmacists Awareness Organisation (TN PAO) said his organisation will give full support to the demands of CYPA and hoped that the state government there would consider the demands of the pharmacist community.

Sofiur Rehman Khan, president of Assam Registered Pharmacists Association (ARPA) said the agitation of Chhattisgarh pharmacists is for a legitimate cause and ARPA will extend full support.

M Dinesh Kumar, general secretary of the Pharmacist Society of Kerala ( PSK), said Chhattisgarh pharmacists association got the inspiration for agitation from the national agitation held before the Parliament in New Delhi under the leadership of Kerala Private Pharmacists Association in last year. He said leaders of several north Indian pharmacist groups had participated in the Parliament March.